Something New
by chesxca
Summary: Levy needed new friends. Real friends, not ones who drag you to a college party, then ditch you. Not ones that force you in a closet with a guy you've only heard bad things about to play seven minutes in heaven. Not ones that expect you to lose your first real kiss in there. And certainly not ones who pass out drunk leaving you in the closet the whole night.
1. Chapter 1

It seemed innocent enough, it was just a party at Stings house. Lucy seemed so excited about it and she didn't think things would get too wild. All of her friends had been talking about it the past week, and Lucy was going to keep giving Levy the eyes until she agreed to tag along.

It was nearing the end of their junior year in high school and Levy did a good job of avoiding the house parties all year long. She wasn't into drinking, she always ended up with a headache and usually did something embarrassing her friends wouldn't let her live down. Smoking was gross, and she didn't have a significant other to go to things with and hooking up with strangers, just wasn't her thing. Most of these famous parties happened on a school nights when someone's parents were out of town and the kid responsible would end up grounded until the end of the year but they always said it was worth it.

Except for Cana, she was a year older than them, and her parties were always insane and she never got in trouble for them. Her father tried to be the cool dad, attempting to make up for not being there most of her life so he pretty much let her get away with murder.

Well, no not murder, that was her dads only rule. Nobody dies, always call 911 if someone gets hurt. And he stayed nearby if anything went wrong. He usually spent the night in the basement, and made sure all the drunk kids stayed the night. He would take everyone's keys at the beginning of the party and wouldn't give them back unless you could pass a sobriety test. At least he was a tiny bit responsible, it was hard to believe that man is a cop.

Sting was a good kid, he was a sophomore who likes to goof around with his best friend Rouge. They were like a younger but slightly more mature version of Lucy's boyfriend Natsu and their long time friend Gray. Sometimes they would all get into fights with each other and wreak havoc around the school. They all always seemed to find their way into detention making it a lot easier for Levy when she needed help working in the library. She would scold them for being too loud, but her work was usually done in no time when she had them around, and it left her time to actually kick her feet up.

Levy took one look back up at Lucy's puppy dog eyes and caved. "I guess I can go for a little while." Levy didn't know why she budged, she usual hated these things but after a rough week of finals, she thought she could take one night off just celebrate a little bit and dance around with her girlfriends.

* * *

Levy felt all sorts of dolled up, Juvia ended up curling her hair, she loved the way her hair fell around her face. Whenever Levy tried by herself she would just fail miserably and give up before she got halfway through her hair. Without a headband her hair just got in her eyes which annoyed her to no end, she made it a point to have one to match everything she owned. Out of habit she still had a sparkly black headband on today match the dress she was wearing.

Cana picked out her outfit and when she first saw it she was turned off by the lack of material. The top half was flowy and blue, it was short sleeved and it seemed to go perfect with the skin tight black bottom half of the dress that stopped at her upper thigh. She matched it with black tights and knee high boots but she still felt pretty exposed so she stole one of Lucy's cardigans hoping to feel a little more dressed than she was.

Cana was walking around in leggings and a black crop that might as well been a bra, she had amazing abs and she made it a point to show them off. . Lucy was in a pink dress, Levy was pretty sure she was trying to match her boyfriends hair, they were a really cheesy couple, and went out of their way to do little things like that. Juvia wore black mini shorts and a sparkly green top, and they were going to meet all their other friends at the party, then meet back at Lucy's house for a sleep over. .

It was strange for levy to feel under dressed and over dressed at the same time. By the time she showed up to the party, half of the girls there were running around in their swim suits. She didn't know Sting had a pool, and it wasn't exactly swimming weather yet. Everyone seemed to get overly excited once it started getting a bit warm, but the nights were still pretty chilly.

Things were a lot rowdier than she anticipated, she noticed there was a lot of people she didn't know, and half the people she did were in college. Like her friend Lisanna's older sister Mira was here. Looking like a model as always. Erza was here too, she graduated from her high school the year before, and she hadn't seen much of her since. She noticed a tall blonde guy playing host and she realized that this wasn't Stings party. It was his older brothers get together. She knew both Sting and Rouge had older brothers, they both liked to party and get into trouble.

* * *

Tonight was full of all sorts of bad decisions, she lied to her parents, she told them she was spending the night at Lucy's which is true but she neglected to mention she was going to a house party full of boys, booze and things happening behind closed doors she didn't want to think of, not to mention thanks to the work of Lucy and Cana she was half dressed. She was trying to keep to herself, her friends ran off somewhere as soon as they got there. She watched more than one couple pretty much dry hump in the middle of the living room before they ran off somewhere to seal the deal. More than one guy drunkenly asked her if she wanted to dance, but she declined, not wanting to be dry humped and then her friends trying to play matchmaker for the rest of the night.

"Levy! I want you to play a game! Come on." Levy thought she was doing a good job of hiding in the kitchen when a drunk Lucy came out of no where and dragged her upstairs. She wanted to ask her, how much she had to drink, they had only been there a few hours and Lucy was already slurring her words. Lucy was the type of drunk to tell you how much she loves you and cuddle you half the night, watching her run around like this was a change of pace. She almost tripped trying to keep up with her, and she was a little worried about whatever game she was talking about. The last time she played a game with Lucy it was spin the bottle and she had to kiss Gray on the cheek and Juvia was ready to skin her alive.

Levy heard a few snickers before she was pushed into a closet, she could barely make out the outline of another person, and she finally realized what was going on. "Lucy!?"

"Make us proud Lev."


	2. Chapter 2

Finals were finally over, the semester ended and Gajeel just barely passed all of his classes. He knew he should have paid more attention in class this year, but he kept getting distracted by the fact he was finally old enough to drink. Sure he had been drinking a good seven years already, but there was just something about being able to buy himself a beer.

The booze wasn't his only distraction, the parties, the girls, the mayhem. He was living college life for the most part. This year he felt like it was the classes that we're getting in the way of his party time. When he needed to be treating it the other way. He made a deal with his parents that if they let him take a year off after high school he would buckle down if being a musician didn't work out for him. He had a lot of fun then too, he pretty much had the same problem, he partied more than he worked. He kept his promise to start college in the fall a year later, and he was pretty happy he was able to get in near his hometown and be near his family. Now he just finished his sophomore year and he was already feeling like college was kicking his ass.

He went to far too many classes hung-over, in last nights clothes, smelling like a girl who's name he didn't remember. He didn't know why things ended up that way. He wasn't even looking for flings, they just happened. Half the girls on campus had a thing for him, just because he was the type of guy that pissed parents off. Everyone went a little wild in college, but some people were just too dumb to function, he could name more people than he wanted to that ended up catching an Std from either a dirty guy or girl. A few of friends ended up getting someone pregnant, and we was starting to wonder what everyone had against condoms.

If a conversation starts and ends with "Hey, you're cute, wanna fuck?" there's a 90 percent chance that you should not sleep with that person, unless you're into the whole burning when you piss, itchy crotch and an embarrassing trip to a doctor sort of thing. His friend Laxus noticed his bad attitude and finally pulled him to the side. "Bro? You're bringing down my party with that face of yours. Grab a beer, and stop being a bitch." Gajeel rolled his eyes, Laxus could either be the coolest person you meet, or the biggest ass hole to walk the earth, there was no in between. " Or I can call that girl, I was telling you about. I'm sure she would love to meet you." Gajeel made a face at him, the last girl Laxus tried to hook him up with tried to stick her finger up his ass." He no longer trusted his judgment, and decided it was probably better to go home.

Gajeel rolled his eyes at him, he was bored with doing the same shit he did all year, and his bed didn't sound like a bad idea right now. "I think I'm good. I'm probably gonna call it a night, don't let my brother do anything stupid." Gajeel was already annoyed his little brother and his friends were at this party, they went from fighting in the yard, to just fucking anything up in their path. They were like a tornado, and most of them couldn't hold their liquor. Rouge was only sixteen and the last thing he wanted to do earlier was give him a talk about always wearing a condom, not making babies and stds. It wasn't his business, but he didn't want a baby in their house, or Rouge complaining about burning pee. He knew Rouge would come to him with his problems before his parents, so he was just trying to get a jump on things.

"Do me one favor first and then you can go home." Laxus was gonna get Gajeel to stick around one way or another. He had been acting way too bitchy lately, and giving him shit would teach him a lesson. That was the kind of friendship they had, they liked to mess with each other, and when they were bored with that, they would mess with everyone else. Gajeel usually spent a decent amount of time with Laxus, their brothers being best friends and their families being close and all. But now that laxus was dating Mira Gajeel came around less, he said something about a third wheel isn't fun unless its a threesome, and he was interested in seeing Laxus naked.

Laxus knew the high school brats were upstairs playing seven minutes in heaven. Gajeel was off his game and it was the perfect opportunity to kick him while he's down and Laxus needed to find an easy way to mess with him without Gajeel figuring things out right away. What better way to annoy Gajeel then to stick him with a girl he would never seal the deal with.

* * *

Gajeel was annoyed to find himself forced into a closet, Fucking Laxus! He stood there knowing that any minute some drunk chick was going to come in and he was going to have to hold her off of him long enough for the time to run out. If Laxus was really feeling like the dick today, it was either gonna be some unattractive bimbo, or the bitch that tried to finger his ass hole. Some things you just don't do, or you ask first, he never wanted to hit a women so much in his life.

He go the surprise of his life when a tiny girl got pushed in, and she looked just as happy to be there as he was. He watched her turn and knock on the door calling out to whoever just pushed her in there. He laughed when she lost her temper and threatened to kill whoever told her to make them proud.

"Apparently, we both need better friends." Gajeel finally spoke to her, trying not to laugh at her still freaking out from being locked in a closet with him. Obviously she wasn't in to this sort of thing, most of the time when shit like this happened to him, the girls thought it was funny and would try to get a lot of things done with in the time provided.

"Yeah it's really dark in here." She tried not to let her voice squeak, the dark alone made her uncomfortable. But being in the dark, with a stranger, all alone in a closet really put her on edge.

Gajeel turned on the light, knowing where the switch was because this wasn't the first time he'd been in Laxus's walk in closet and took in the sight of the tiny woman in front of him. She was short, obviously pretty young and she was pretty cute despite the fact she looked timid.

Levy stared back at him, taking in the fact he was at least a foot taller than her, even with him leaning against one of the dresses with his arms crossed over his chest and he was sizing her up. He had a lot of piercings, and really long hair, and so many muscles she was pretty sure he could bench press her and not break a sweat. But at the same time he looked really familiar. "Are you related to Rouge?" Gajeel rolled his eyes, of course this tiny woman was one of his brothers little friends.

"That brats my brother, I'm Gajeel."

Levy seemed to tense up even more thinking about all the times the guys came to school beat up. She knew they always played fight, but whenever their older brothers were involved they came to school in pretty bad shape. Laxus could be pretty bad, but Rouges older brother didn't believe in holding back. Natsu thought it was awesome, Levy thought it was scary.

He looked a lot like Rouge, they had the same eyes and they both had dark hair, but the guy in front of her was taller, and seemed a hell of a lot scarier. "You got a name short stuff? Or are you just gonna gawk at me the whole time."

Levy puffed out her cheeks at the nick name. "It's Levy, and I'm not short, you're just a giant." He laughed, she was sassy, most people wouldn't have given him an attitude, especially someone he would probably step on if he didn't pay attention.

"Whatever you say shrimp, what are you like 15? 16? What the hell is a kid like you doing in a place like this?" Levy was getting more annoyed by the minute, she just told him her name not even five minutes ago and he was calling her something else.

"It's Levy! And I'm almost 18, not that it's any of your business." Gajeel stared at her again, she was older than she looked. She wasn't busty, but she was easy on the eyes.

"I made my choice." He just met her, and he already liked pissing her off. She did this thing where she puffed out her cheeks and pouted and it made him think of a kid throwing a tantrum. "So, Shrimp." He made it a point to emphasize the word Shrimp, making her roll her eyes. "You wanna make out or what?"


	3. Chapter 3

"So shrimp. Do you wanna make out or what?" Levy turned bright red and she hid her face in her hands. It wasn't every day an attractive older jerk was offering to kiss her. She heard him laugh at her reaction, she was never going to live this down. "I'm just saying, I'm a bad liar, and if your little friends find out you chickened out, who knows who you're gonna be thrown in here with next."

She looked up horrified, she could just imagine what Lucy would do to punish her for passing on this opportunity. She was just complaining the other day that she was already seventeen and has never had a real kiss. Now there was a guy practically in her face, Levy was just thankful it wasn't someone she thought of as a brother, or someone who would obsess about it afterward. Her two friends Jet and Droy had been fighting for her love over the past couple years and she would rather cut off her own leg then be stuck in a closet with either of them.

"Let me guess? First kiss?" Gajeel tried not to roll his eyes. He was usually surrounded by girls who were down for just about anything, and now there was a girl who looked like she was going to faint at the thought of being kissed. Talk about a 180. This was going to be sloppy, and retracting his invitation would just be rude, and he wasn't in the mood for tears or being kicked in the balls. He couldn't tell if she was the violent type, or the type who cried, and he wasn't looking forward to finding out. Small girls were usually feisty, and they traveled in packs with other feisty girls, and he didn't want to die. He was really going to kill Laxus after this.

Levy shuffled her feet trying to decide whether she should answer his question, she wasn't completely clueless, but her experience was something most people wouldn't expect. She wondered if it was really that obvious that she hadn't kissed a boy yet, was there a stamp on her forehead or something? "Well, I do have some experience... It just hasn't been with a guy..."

Gajeel raised a studded brow with a smile on his face that he wasn't even attempting to hide. There was no way in hell she was going to slip that in and then just drop it. He needed to hear it out of his mouth before he started celebrating. "I'm gonna need you to elaborate on that." Levy made an annoyed face she knew she shouldn't have said anything, but she was already in this deep, so why not just tell it all.

"Me and my friends have... You know, practiced before." It was something she never mentioned to anyone before, she didn't think it was weird. Well, until she said it out loud and she saw the perverted smile on his face.

"When we get out of here. I'm gonna need you to point them out for me. You know, just so I know how many people I kissed just by kissing you." She rolled her eyes, knowing he was just trying to cover up whatever pervy reason he really wanted to know.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's what you're worried about. How about the same for you, go ahead and point out all the people you've kissed first." Gajeel didn't know why this girl was so fun the mess with, she was taking none of his shit and she had a comeback to everything he said. Obviously she thought quick on her feet. Most girls either got really offended by his teasing, they usually ended up brooding and crying to her friends and then he had a group of angry women wanting his head. Others just took his shit lying down, and would constantly try to change to a conversation about his muscles, talk about boring.

"We don't have that kind of time." Levy rolled her eyes, great he was a whore just like she thought he was. And he was admitting it so freely, she thought about her options for a minute, was she really gonna kiss this guy? She heard Cana's voice in the back of her head telling her to live a little. But Cana didn't really give the best advice but she tried ignoring. She finally caved, why not? Its just a kiss, if it was terrible its not like she had to see him again.

"Don't be weird, or try anything funny, or I'm gonna punch you." Levy blushed again, she just gave him permission to kiss her, and on the inside she was freaking out.

He laughed at her again, she actually had the balls to threaten him like she could do anything. "Like you could reach." He stepped forward, closing in the distance between the two of them, and bringing himself to full height. "You want the lights on or off?"

She didn't think it mattered since their eyes were going to be closed. But she figured it would be less embarrassing if the lights were off just in case someone decided to barge in on them. "Off."

When the lights were off she just waited, she was holding her breathe hoping to get this done and over with. She was getting ready to ask him what was the hold up, or freak out and stop him when she finally felt his lips brush across hers. If the lights weren't off, he would have saw that the light blush she had on her cheeks turned into a full tomato faced blush.

He was gentle, and she was pretty thankful he didn't just try to shove his tongue down her throat. She felt his hands run through her hair and he deepened the kiss, pulling her lip into his mouth and sucking on it gently. She didn't know what to do with her hands, and she ended up just holding onto the front of his shirt for dear life.

He pulled away and picked her up sitting her on the dresser behind her. "You're really fucking short." His back was killing him from being hunched over for so long, he kissed her again shutting up any complaint she had ready for him. He made it a point to stand to her side and not between her legs. He wasn't trying to be a pervert, but their height difference was starting to get in the way.

He was a little bit surprised when she was the one to slide her tongue into his mouth. She had a grip on the hair near the back of his neck and his hands were on the dresser on either side of her hips. To say she was enjoying herself would be an understatement, she bit his lip and he had to stop things before they got out of hand. Trying to change the subject, he thought it was a good time to mention, that its been way more than seven minutes in their heaven. "Levy? Don't you think we've been in here a while now?"

He was out of breathe, and she noticed his voice was deeper than it was from earlier. When he was teasing her, it seemed pretty mischievous, but now it was on another level. " I don't care." She was feeling bold, kissing him again. She didn't know when was the next time she would be able to kiss someone like this and she wasn't going to waste the time spending it worrying about a how long she had been in the closet. Lucy was going to be proud, as much as her friends talked about their romantic adventures, it had nothing on her making out with a total stranger at a college party.

"If you keep biting my lip like that, I can't make any promises about being on my best behavior." His voice was raspy, and his forehead was pushed against hers, she could feel the metal of his piercings against her face.

"Is that a bad thing?" She was curious, She didn't know what had gotten into her, she never acted like this. Maybe she just read one too many romance novels and now it was influencing her judgment. Hormones were already running high and pulling his lip between her teeth made him groan in a way she had never heard before. He pulled away from her, for her sake, he wasn't going to take advantage of some girl who was biting off more than she could chew. He needed to put in some space between the two of them, she did exactly what he warned her about and she was playing with fire. It was a total change of pace after her acting so shy and innocent before. He knew she thought they were just kissing. But she was working on seducing him and he was sure she didn't even know it. Gajeel pulled out his phone checking the time trying to distract himself.

Levy was coming down from cloud nine and she was starting to feel embarrassed. Her eyes hurt from him turning on the life, and she was wondering if she looked just as disheveled as he did. "It's been like twenty minutes." That made Levy check her phone and saw that it was almost midnight. The three hours she spent at the party were pretty uneventful, but now she can say it definitely ended with a bang no matter what else happened tonight.

"That fucking ass hole." Levy looked up at Gajeel's outburst, she could tell he was annoyed but there was also humor in his voice. "Apparently we're in time out for bringing down the party." He tried not to laugh when he watched realization go across her face.

"But, we kissed." If being in the closet was a punishment, that meant she just made out with Gajeel for nothing. She practically squeaked, jumping down from the dresser and trying the door again. She tried calling Lucy but it went straight to voicemail and she wanted to cry. Now she was stuck in here with a stranger. Who was her friends older brother, who she just made out with, for who knows how long.

"Oi. You didn't seem that upset about a minute ago." He was teasing her again, at least he had a sense humor about their situation. He knew something was up, Laxus liked to pull pranks on people, but seven minutes in heaven with a high school chick seemed a little mild compared to the what he usually did.

He watched her puff out her cheeks again, a red tint on her cheeks and he couldn't help but laugh at their situation. "So shrimp. What do you wanna do for the rest of our punishment?"

* * *

She didn't want to fall asleep, but she had a hard time keeping her eyes open. But she spent the last three hours talking to Gajeel about anything they could think of and she could tell he was ready for bed too. "Okay, I give, it's time to crash." A couple of hours ago they ended up sitting on the floor just taking about whatever they could think of. Gajeel was laying on his back, using his arm as a pillow with Levy laying on her side facing him.

Gajeel didn't want to get up, but he started looking through the drawers finally pulling out a blanket. He stepped over Levy reaching on one of the upper shelves pulling down a king sized pillow throwing it on the floor beside her. "There's only one blanket, so I guess we have to cuddle." He shot her a smile that was meant to embarrass her but it just made her roll her eyes. After him laying on her lap while she played with his hair was already pretty intimate, not to mention the whole kissing thing. Laying next to him wouldn't be that much different, as long as he behaved himself.

"You better not try anything." She was too tired to argue with him. But she followed suit watching him kick off his shoes and throw his jacket in the corner before getting comfortable. She turned off the light before pulling off her tights, and cardigan. She took of her boots hours ago, hoping to be a little more comfortable, but honestly her butt hurt from sitting on the floor, and sleeping on it was the last thing she wanted to do.

She wanted to tell him he wasn't smooth, and that she was cuddling him because she wanted to, not because he said so. But that would have went straight to his head. She crawled closer to him, and she didn't seem to mind it that much using his chest as a pillow with his arm wrapped around her. "You know shrimp, maybe you should slow down. We just met, and now you're sleeping with me."

She groaned at his joke, despite the rumors she learned that Gajeel wasn't a bad guy, just really a big dork and she had enough of his one liners for one night. She muttered out a "Fuck you so much." Half heartedly hitting him making him laugh before they both fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Gajeel slept like shit, laying on the hard floor was bad enough, but trying not to squish the girl beside him was an ordeal. He could tell the shrimp sized woman wasn't having the best sleep either. She kept tossing and turning trying to get comfortable, and at one point she climbed halfway on top of him. If she wasn't asleep he would have thought she was trying to put the moves on him, Gajeel definitely checked, whispering her name, but she was out cold even if it wasn't the best sleep of her life.

He had to keep pushing her leg back down every time she threw it across his waist because it kept rubbing up against his crotch. Some times harder than others, and getting nailed in the balls was not something he wanted to wake up to. He was pretty sure she drooled on him, which he would tease her about later, and he was finally found a position where he wasn't in the drool zone, and she couldn't accidentally injure anything near and dear to him.

He rolled her away from him, hugging her from behind. It wasn't often that he cuddled with anyone, if he did he wasn't sober and he never did it on purpose. Usually he passed out drunk, and had to do his best tip toeing out of the room, followed by the walk of shame back home. It wasn't that bad once he got comfortable. She was tiny, so she didn't take up that much room, and he was thankful she didn't snore, he was hoping that he could finally go back to sleep, until she started pushing her backside up against him. He cursed under his breathe, trying to do the right thing and move away from her before she caused unwanted problems. But every time he moved, she did too and he just ended up rolling over. Sleeping back to back seemed like a safer way to not be accused as a pervert. If she woke up to being poked, he was sure that would be bad fore his health. Finally he could sleep in peace, he thought she was done moving, until she rolled over too wrapping an arm around his waist making him the little spoon.

He was pretty sure she was drooling in his hair, but he didn't care at this point. He finally passed out for good this time, and woke up a few hours later to a text from Laxus that just said "Nice jet pack." He opened the text an saw a picture attached of him passed out with Levy wrapping her arm and leg around him from behind. He would probably laugh about this later, but right now he was too busy thinking of terrible shit to do to Laxus.

He thought about going back to sleep, but he was already sore from being on that floor half the night. Then he thought of murdering Laxus, he probably wouldn't get much time, it would be a crime of passion. Waking Levy up to tease her also crossed his mind, but he figured she would be pretty cranky with only a few hours of sleep. But the closet door being cracked made him just think of going the fuck home. He didn't live far from Laxus, just a couple of blocks walk and he could be enjoying his own bed. But guilt made him wake up the girl next to him, he was at least going to make sure she made it home safe.

"Hey..." He poked her cheek a few times, making her stir and rub her eyes. "Either wake up and I'll walk you home, or you can stay here and keep drooling all over the place." She didn't want to move, but she didn't want to spend another minute in the stupid closet she was probably going to have nightmares about, years from now she was going to need therapy, and she was sure she was going to be claustrophobic after this.

"I don't drool. Idiot." She pulled down her dress, finally realizing it was hiked up and flashing her panties for the world to see. She stuffed her tights in her pocket and pulled on her cardigan. She was ready to go, and definitely was never coming to a party again. "And I can walk by myself." She had a hard time pulling her shoes back on without the tights to help them slide easier. She thought she was moving pretty fast for just waking up, but Gajeel was standing by the door and he looked impatient.

"Yeah, and I drooled on my own chest, you can barely put your damn shoes on. I'm not gonna let you walk around by yourself and get girl-napped or something." She blushed looking at the spot on his shirt, she was never gonna live that one down.

* * *

Gajeel really wanted to go home, and the two blocks out of the way to take Levy to her friends house was nothing short of torturous. She kept lagging behind him and he couldn't tell if it was because she had short legs or that she was practically sleep walking the whole time. He got tired of watching her shiver and threw his jacket around her shoulders. It rained last night, so it was pretty cool this morning and the dress she was wearing wasn't doing much to keep her warm.

"What is it with girls and not wearing enough clothes. Even in winter you guys are running around in mini skirts like its hot or something." He slowed down his pace to match hers, and felt like he was moving backwards. If she didn't pick up the pace he was just going to carry her, and not in the nice princess way. He almost laughed thinking about how she would react to being thrown over his shoulder, and carried like a sack of potatoes. The sun was already rising and he felt like sleeping well into next week.

"Tights help. And why do boys wear pants all year long?" Gajeel looked down at her tight less legs, and wondered if he just imagined her wearing them earlier. He didn't pay that much attention to what she was wearing earlier besides the fact it was really short and just as tight. Ever couple steps she would pull her dress back down, but it just crept back up every time she moved. Her butt was too big for that dress, but he wasn't going to tell her that. The last thing he needed it was her taking the comment as him calling her fat.

"Then why aren't you wearing any? You look like you're freezing. And when you're my height, they don't really make shorts that fit. And I ain't the type of guy to walk around with my ass hanging out. Unlike you." She made an offended sound, sure the dress was short, but it wasn't that short, she thought she did a good job keeping it in place.

"My ass isn't hanging out! And maybe if you weren't staring at it, you wouldn't have such a stupid thing to say. My tights were getting annoying so I took them off, and once they come off, there's no way in hell I'm putting them back on." He laughed, she had him there, it's not like he meant to stare, but being stuck with her alone for so long made him notice certain things. Not to mention he was an ass man, and he definitely noticed hers.

"Oh yeah? You're wearing black boy shorts that say fun sized on your ass in sparkly pink writing." Her jaw dropped, there was no way in hell he was supposed to know that. The pervert probably took a peek at her while she was sleeping. She was going to kill him! He was a pervert and he needed to die, she couldn't wait to call her friend Erza and tell her about what a fucking creep he was. "You dress is see through when you bend over. Aren't your friends supposed to check you out for that sort of thing? Or were you guys too busy swapping spit before the party."

Her face turned red, she was glad she was finally at Lucy's house, she couldn't take anymore of his teasing. Not to mention he knew in great detail what her panties looked like. She wanted to tell him they were a gag gift from Lucy and she wasn't into that sort of thing. Then she was thankful she didn't let Lucy talk her into wearing a thong. She ignored his last question not wanting to admit that he hit the nail on the head with that one. She pulled Lucy's spare key out of her phone case and thanked Gajeel for everything, with great sarcasm. She went to turn towards the door, but Gajeel pulled her back my the wrist. "Oi. Shorty, a man walks you to the door, you're supposed to kiss him good night."

She turned red, she wasn't sure if it was out of embarrassment or anger though. "I'm not kissing you again. Plus the suns up so its the morning now." He laughed at the blush on her face, she was saying no, but she kept staring at his lips and biting hers like she was trying to stop herself. He pulled her closer to him, one hand at the small of her back and the other one stroking her cheek.

Even with her standing on the stairs he was taller than her, "You're being stubborn. It's just a kiss." He was still giving her the option to say no, but he wasn't surprised when she closed her eyes and pushed her lips against his. She knew the sooner she got it done and over with, the sooner she could go to bed. What was one more kiss going to hurt? She spent half the night within a foot of him, and it didn't hurt that he was attractive. She was trying really hard not to like it, but she found herself running her fingers through his hair.

He finally got his revenge, pulling her lip between his teeth. She made a sound she wasn't even expecting, her eyes fluttered open giving him a dreamy look. She completely understood why he was complaining about that earlier. The last time she kissed someone and they bit her lip it just felt weird, it was way too hard and it was out of nowhere. Gajeel took his time, it was and slow, running his tongue across the her lip, giving her a lingering look before pulling away and telling her good night.

Levy felt herself shake, the last time he kissed her, he was holding back, but this time he pulled out all of the good stuff. From the way he was holding her against to him, to the way he was gently pulling on her hair. She was going to remember this night for a long time. She put her back against the front door trying to calm herself down just incase anyone was still up. She flopped down next to Lucy with a smile on her face, she needed to remember to kill her in the morning, Cana and Juvia were asleep on the other bed and she was glad everyone was asleep because she really didn't want to explain her surprisingly good mood. She should have been pissed, but she was distracted by another feeling. She was trying to scold herself for being stupid, she knew it would never happen, but she still kind of had a crush on Gajeel.


	5. Chapter 5

Levy woke up to the smell of bacon, the aroma alone was enough to make her want to get out of the bed she promised herself she would never being again. Then the smell of pancakes, and coffee hit her, she was definitely up now. Hangover food for breakfast meant Cana was up, how Cana never had a hangover herself confused Levy to no end, she like had an immunity to everyone else was miserable after a night of drinking, Cana would be there with a smile on her face and a beer in her hand. Cana lived by the words "It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Lucy was no longer beside her, that made her want to roll into a burrito and take up the whole bed, but her grumbling stomach wouldn't agree with that. The room was quiet which probably meant Juvia was up too, she rolled over to confirm her suspicions, finally looking at the clock on the wall seeing that it was almost one in the afternoon. Levy didn't even drink last night, but she was dealing with a hangover of another kind. She was still in last nights clothes, and she was sure she looked a mess. She stepped over Gajeel's jacket which was peeking out from under Lucy's bed. She decided to stuff it in her backpack before anyone had a chance to ask her about it, balled up the floor you couldn't even tell it was way too big for her and it smelled like man, not that she was purposely sniffing it or anything like that.

Looking in the mirror didn't make her feel better, her hair was a train wreck. A mixture of fallen curls, her sleeping in random places and someone running their hands through it made it look like a rats nest. Attempting to do anything to it now, was just going to torture, she was going to have to shower before she went down for breakfast. She needed conditioner and a lot of it, to deal with the lions mane that was sitting on top of her head. She had bags under her eyes and she was sore from spending half of the night on a floor, for someone who didn't have a single drop of alcohol last night, she was sure feeling some of the side effects.

* * *

Fifteen minutes and a pair of sweatpants later she was finally clean, with almost decent hair. She didn't feel like fighting with her wet hair so she just put it in a bun, maybe this time it would stay, usually as soon as it dried she had a million flyaways. If she didn't have to do anything that day, she would just leave it in her messy bun, and start over fresh in the morning, but if she actually had to see people, she would rewet her hair, and pray to the product gods.

Apparently Lucy invited everyone over for breakfast, because besides her Cana and Juvia, Natsu, Gray, Sting, and Rogue were sitting in her living room. "Levy!? Forgive me!?" She was almost tackled by Lucy taking her hands who had teary eyes and a sad smile. She knew it wasn't all Lucy's fault, she would never purposely do anything terrible to her and the alcohol didn't really help her judgment. Levy was just collateral damage when Laxus wanted to play a prank on Gajeel. She heard that Laxus had a sick sense of humor, but she didn't know he didn't mind taking down innocent victims to do it.

"Fine. Lu, but I'm never letting you drag me to a party again." Lucy gave her a loving smile, before pulling her into a hug, it was something she always did, when someone was mad at her. Levy knew her words were falling on death ears, it was a cycle Levy needed to break. Lucy would ask her to do something she really didn't want to do, something always embarrassing happened. Levy would say never again, and Lucy would come at her with the eyes. The coffee was still warm, but she had to warm up her pancakes and bacon in the microwave. "Sting your brother is the biggest ass hole on the planet."

Sting rolled his eyes responding with a "Who do you think you're telling?" She had heard horror stories from Sting in the past, Laxus was always up to something. He wasn't satisfied with ruffling his brothers hair, and teasing him about girls. Laxus was the king of all out prank wars. She remembered one time Sting and Rogue had to spend a whole school day in borrowed clothes from the lost and found. They had accidentally finished off Laxus's favorite cereal so he stole all of their clothes while they were in the shower during gym class. That man had a sadistic streak, and she was glad to no longer be on the receiving end of it.

"Oh, and Rogue, your brother is a very, very close second." She sipped on her coffee trying to hide the smile on her face. Her night with Gajeel wasn't all bad, but she had to complain about it to someone.

Rogue looked up with a guilty look on his face. "Oh god, you met Gajeel? I am so sorry." Rogue gave himself a mental reminder to ask his brother what he did to the poor girl, he knew his brother could be pretty rough around the edges especially if he was drinking last night.

"So Levy? What happened last night? I didn't see you after I took you upstairs." Last night was a blur to Lucy, she only remembered bits and pieces. But she was happy when she woke up and everyone was here and safe. Apparently Natsu carried her all the way home and then crashed on the couch, Gray stayed the night to make sure Natsu behaved himself and the other boys showed up a little while ago.

"I don't want to talk about it." Levy shoved a bite full of pancakes in her mouth, she needed to stall there was no way she was announcing to the world that she made out with Gajeel half the night. Slept with him, and then made out with him again on Lucy's porch. Nope no way, no how. She would have never heard the end of it, and her wedding would have been planned by the end of the week. She was hoping Gajeel would keep his mouth shut about it because if he told Rogue, Rogue would tell Sting, and Sting would tell anyone who would listen.

"Well, I heard a rumor Laxus locked you guys in his closet all night." Levy's face turned white, she tried to hide the oncoming blush that came from a mixture of thinking about last night, and being busted. She wasn't expecting Natsu to have that information, and that smile on his face meant he knew more than he was telling. But there was no way he knew what happened inside of the closet, unless there were cameras. But it was dark... There better not be a video of that floating around anywhere, her life would be over! The only logical reason Natsu would know that she and Gajeel kissed is that sometime between Gajeel walking home and going to bed he texted Natsu, but that didn't seem likely. Why would Gajeel be bragging about that. It never crossed her mind that it was possible Natsu was up when she got back and saw the whole thing. All eyes were on Levy and she sighed nodding her head and shoving more food in her mouth before the room exploded into chaos.

She kind of wished the girls would have let her finish her breakfast, before she was dragged away for details. "Nothing happened!" She pretended not to notice the boys standing around the doorway trying to eavesdrop. "He annoyed me the whole night and made fun of my height." The boys lost interest after hearing that. What she said sounded a lot like something Gajeel would do and they didn't have a reason to question it. If she could see through walls she would have noticed Natsu's snickering and she would have known she was busted.

"Awe Levy, I was hoping you would say you guys kissed or something. Don't worry though, I'm sure we'll find you a boyfriend in no time." She tried to ignore the stars in Lucy's eyes. Lucy seemed obsessed with finding Levy a boyfriend ever since she started dating Natsu. Levy thought Lucy was spending way too much time with Lisanna, her sister Mira was known for that sort of thing. Juvia seemed just as excited about hooking Levy up with anyone because that meant one less available girl near Gray.

Levy was just ready to put last night behind her and move on with her life.


	6. Chapter 6

Throughout the last couple weeks Levy was waiting for the shit to hit the fan. Once school was out it was pretty easy to avoid Lucy since she was always with Natsu. Natsu kept giving her a knowing smile but he never said anything, it was putting her on edge and it was better to just avoid the both of them. Levy managed to get a summer job at the public library, and no one seemed to argue with her, when she said she was busy because of that. She did a good job of making up reasons of why she couldn't attend any of the end of the year school parties, one time she had to get her mom in on it, and tell all of her friends that she grounded Levy. It wasn't very believable because Levy hardly did anything wrong, and when she did she never got caught, but who was going to argue with Levy's mom?

The only reminder she had of Stings party was the jacket hanging up in her room. She meant to give it to Rogue before school was out but that meant smuggling it past all her friends and then having to explain to Rogue why she had it in the first place. It was pretty warm so Gajeel probably wasn't missing it too much. But she didn't want to have him thinking that she was holding on to it just because she wanted to. She wasn't like Juvia, who jumped at the chance to steal the clothes of the guy you have a thing for. She was hoping that maybe not seeing him for a while meant she would get over this stupid school girl crush.

Levy was really hoping that stupid kiss was the only reason she was hung up on him, that way she could just blame the hormones and all. She tried to ignore the fact they spent half the night talking. And getting to know each other, and it was just out of curiosity that she wanted to know more. Plus there was no way someone like him could be interested in her, she was sure he would have kissed just about anyone who walked in that closet she was just that very lucky/unlucky girl.

* * *

As much as Levy loved books, working in the library was torture. All she wanted to do was sit down and read them, not walk around for six hours cleaning up after people who abused the poor things. Not to mention she always had a ridiculous list of books she wanted to take home and read, and today wasn't an exception.

She would either stash the ones she wanted behind the counter, or she would write them down on her growing list and she figured it was the perfect way to spend the summer. No parties, no boys, no problems! Just books. It was almost the end of the day and she just had a few more things to put away before she could close up. She didn't think anyone else was around this time of day so she started riding the book carts around putting everything away. And of course the last book she had, was a huge old leather one that belonged in history, it was just her luck it belonged on a higher shelf she couldn't quite reach. There wasn't a ladder in sight, so she stood on her tip toes trying to put it back in its place.

She almost had it, it just needed one more push but it just kept falling back down and she was getting really frustrated. She felt a weight on top of her head, and she had a gut feeling of who would do something like that even before he spoke. "You do a pretty good job at disappearing, but you kind of suck at the whole putting shit away thing. What I bet you're not even 5 feet tall are ya?"

He took the book out of her hands and put it back where it belonged, still not removing the arm resting on her head. "Gajeel? What are you doing here?"

* * *

Gajeel was the last person he thought would be taking online college classes for the summer. But he told himself he would buckle down and take classes serious next year and getting a head start was the best thing to do. He needed to study for some stupid test he didn't want to take and to find references for a research paper he didn't want to do, but trying to that at home seemed challenging.

Everything was distracting him, he would try to look school related things up on his computer but he just ended up looking up different shit on the Internet. Facebook was so boring that he would immediately end up trying to study again. He really messed up when he decided to check his tumblr that was just going down the rabbit hole and he usually didn't escape until the wee hours of the morning.

After his third hour of not studying, he decided to move to another location. He didn't see a point in driving all the way to the university's library when there was one within walking distance. Not to mention going on campus meant there was a million other distractions that would get in his way. The public library was pretty empty because no one really wanted to spend the beginning of their summer vacation here, unless you absolutely had to, or you were a kid trying to get your summer reading done as fast as you could.

Gajeel was able to get more things done in the hour he was there than he did at home. Tumblr was blocked on the computers here, so he no longer had that distraction, and he ended up turning off his phone to rid himself of that distraction too. He was pretty sure Laxus was still trying to hunt him down after Gajeel got a little payback for the closet incident, but he wasn't too worried about him.

The library was getting ready to close so he was going to call it a night and check out the book he needed. It was just a matter of finding the stupid librarian. Most of the time it was an older lady with a bad attitude, or that chick named Evergreen who had an obsession with Medusa, it was fucking weird so he just avoided her as much as he could. He spent five minutes waiting at the front desk, before he actually started walking around looking for whichever unpleasant clerk was wasting his time.

He could have just got the book tomorrow but he didn't feel like looking for it all over again. Or coming back to the library if he was being perfectly honest. He couldn't find either hag anywhere, the old one didn't move that fast and the other one never left the front desk. There was no way either of them were upstairs so he started looking through the isles hoping to catch a glimpse of somebody. Kids? Empty. Young adult? Empty. Fiction? Fucking empty.

He finally rounded towards the history and saw a head of blue hair he wasn't expecting to see. The girl was on the tips of her toes trying to put a book back that probably weighed as much as her, but she didn't have the height so it kept falling back into her hands. It was only on the sixth shelf that he could easily reach, but for her it looked like the hardest thing she ever had to do. He walked up behind her using her head as an armrest before putting her book away. He made a comment about her height that made her pout and she asked him what he was doing there.

* * *

"Well, I was trying to check out a book, but the librarian here kind of sucks at her job." It was so easy to piss her off, she looked like she was going to rip him a new one when she took a deep breath to calm herself down in.

Levy was mentally screaming, Gajeel was the last person she expected to see in the library, her library. A month after they kissed, and she still had to fight the blush that came to her cheeks when she thought about it. "Sorry, I was trying to clean up before we closed." She was trying to be polite, and treat him just like any other visitor, there was no way she was going to let his presence bother her. She took his card, and stamped his book, handing it back to him. Hopefully he would just be on his way and she could finish closing in peace. But even though he had everything he needed he wasn't budging. He was staring at her, and she was trying not to be uncomfortable but she finally asked him what the hell he was staring at.

"That's a good look on you." She couldn't fight the blush this time. He was blatantly checking her out. There was nothing special about the way she was dressed. She was wearing I white blouse and a pencil skirt, her hair was up in a bun on top of her head and she was wearing her glasses. She knew she had to look a mess after running around her whole shift, but he was still staring like she was in the dress from the party.

"Thanks I guess." After telling herself mentally that she would not check him out, she did any way. His long hair was pulled back into a ponytail and he was wearing a green tank that looked like it was struggling to stretch over his chest. That's when she noticed the piercings on his forearms that were crossed over the counter he was leaning on.

Just how many piercings did this guy have? That was a dangerous thought, she started staring at him trying to figure out if he had any hidden piercings under his clothes. Asking him was on the tip of her tongue, but she probably would have died of embarrassment if he said anything too private, and then offered to show her. She coughed trying to distract herself from that line of thought, she didn't care if Gajeel had any stupid hidden piercings.

"So Shrimperella, how've you been?" She rolled her eyes at the nickname, she would be surprised if he actually knew what her name was. And now this idiot was adding things to it. She was going to ignore it but being called Shrimperella made her curious as to where he came up with that one.

"The whole spending the night with me, then disappearing forever thing. But instead of leaving a glass slipper or some shit behind, you stole my favorite jacket." She almost forgot that she still had his jacket. It was still hanging on her closet door. She tried reading his expression, but he was just staring at her waiting for her to reply.

"Sorry. I still have it, I meant to give it to Rogue before school ended but I kept forgetting about it." She wasn't going to comment on the other thing he said, she didn't owe him an answer on that. She pretty much dropped off the face of the planet on everybody, and it's not like they made plans to see each other afterward.

"Great, I'll walk you home, and I can get it now." She was hesitant, she could always just bring it up to the library and he could get it from there. Her dad was out of town and her mom was working late, and she was nervous to be going home to an empty house, but she still wasn't sure if him walking her was a good idea. Especially after what happened last time.

"Last time you walked me home, you had a hidden agenda." He smirked at that comment, she was treating it like it was an elephant in the room, but he always intended on kissing her good night. If she would have asked, he would have told her so.

"Well, I need my jacket, and you need to get home safe, so I will be walking you." He was leaned over the counter so far that their noses were almost touching, she could feel his breath on her lips, and all that will power she just had flew out of the window. Her body was moving on her own, and she leaned forward, she could feel her eyes closing. But she was waiting for a kiss that never came, instead of kissing her he pulled away. She was trying to hide the disappointment on her face, but she was really pissed off by the smug look on his." If you're that worried about any agenda I may have, you better not let me anywhere near your door."


	7. Chapter 7

Levy was having a huge case of Deja Vu, after the first block she stopped trying to keep up with him, if he wanted to walk with her he was going to have to slow down. He insisted on carrying her books home, he shoved his in his bag before they left the library, but she had so many they wouldn't have fit if she tried. She didn't plan on bringing that many home, but she took advantage of Gajeel showing up and made him her pack mule. She knew they see heavy, but they didn't seem to bother him at all. At least he was being some sort of a gentleman, and those muscles were good for something more than staring at.

"Hey Shrimp." She groaned mentally at the nickname, and she knew the by the smirk he was throwing her from over his shoulder that some complete bull shit was about to fly out of his mouth. "I know you're enjoying the view of my ass from back there, but I don't know where we're going so you're gonna have to lead the way. He gave her a chance to catch up, laughing at the tint on her cheeks, it didn't take a genius to figure out she was still pretty pissed about him almost kissing her. He just didn't know if she was mad that he was going to, or mad that he didn't. This girl was being hot and cold, but even her cold was pretty damn fiery.

"Did you hear how I got Laxus back?" She was curious now, Laxus got them pretty good, she was glad to hear somebody got him back at his own game. She listened to the story of how Gajeel waited a few weeks before he snuck red hair dye into Laxus's shampoo. "He's been trying to wash it out for a while now, but I used permanent dye. He's still pretty colorful, I'm thinking he's going to have to go get it bleached or something." Levy couldn't wait to see pictures, she was a victim of the last prank so she at least deserved to laugh at Laxus getting his just desserts. "Yeah. Everything was fine at first, and then it backfired on me really bad."

Gajeel wasn't usually a nervous person, and from what she knew him and Laxus did this type of stuff to each other all the time. "His girlfriend Mira ended up using the same shampoo, and they've both been walking around with matching bright hair the past week." Levy laughed out loud, no wonder Gajeel was nervous Mira had a tempter so bad that Laxus didn't even try to cross her, and she was a model. So Gajeel messing with her hair was practically a death sentence.

"Yeah, she's probably gonna cut off my balls or something like that, I can deal with a mad Laxus, Mira's a fucking demon though, I've seen her flip out on Laxus a few times and I left just not to die with him. Women are resourceful and shit, and you guys like hold grudges forever , she might wait ten years to get her revenge." Levy tried really hard not to laugh, thinking about poor Mira and her red hair. She had heard rumors about Mira's temper too and if there was any truth behind it Gajeel was right to be scared.

* * *

Levy forgot about his comment about her door until she they were both standing on her porch. "Do you want to come in for tea or something?" She told herself maybe if he stayed long enough, he would forget about the kiss. It's not that she was afraid kissing him again would make her crush worse or anything like that. She ignored the comment in the back of her mind telling her that there was no way it could be worse than it already is.

She honestly didn't expect him to accept her invitation, he didn't mention anything about the kiss so maybe he forgot already. Levy could have just gave him his jacket, and slammed her door in his face, sure it would have been rude, but it would have been effective. It wasn't until he was sitting in her living room did she think about the fact she was home alone with a really attractive guy, who she definitely had the hots for.

She went to her room to get his jacket, it looked weird not hanging on her door after being there a month. She wasn't going to volunteer the information that she wore it sometimes when she was cold, and she found it really comfortable. She handed his jacket back to him, and ignored the comment about him saying it smelled like girl. The only thing that got her to stop hiding in her room was the thought of Gajeel coming to look for her, and the thought of Gajeel in her room gave her some really wonderfully terrible thoughts.

* * *

Levy chose to sit on the other side of the room, and not on the love seat next to him. She wanted to make a comment about his feet on her table, she didn't think he would take "make yourself comfortable" to heart. But he could have done a lot of worse things. "Hey shrimp, stop making that face, you look constipated."

That finally got under her skin, he had been throwing jabs here and there and this one finally stuck. "You're such a stupid jerk! Who the hell says that people." He was laughing at her throwing a hissy fit from the other side of the table. "And stop calling me shrimp! I bet you don't even remember my name! Do you just give all girls nicknames so you don't have to keep up with them?"

Gajeel raised an eyebrow at her, "Oh? So now you think you know me Levy? Maybe you should take the time to actually learn something about me." He was amused, the smirk on his face seemed to grow the more mad she got. She told him that she already knew everything about him needed to know, it made him wonder if she asked around about him. If that was the case, no wonder she was hesitant about him, but people only knew what he wanted them to. "Is it my turn to make assumptions about you?" She was pouting again, he was right that she thought she had him figured out, and was surprised to hear her name out of his mouth.

"I think you're a bookworm, there's no other reason for you to spending your whole summer in a Library, unless your into that sort of thing. I know you're sensitive about your height, which makes it more fun to keep bringing it up cause I think its really cute when you get mad. I think you're not used to having attention from guys which is why every time I give you a compliment you brush it off, and act like I insulted you."

She didn't want to admit he was right on the last one. Jet and Droy constantly told her how awesome she was, but she thought it was mostly because other girls wouldn't give them the time of day. Everyone else barely gave her a second look because she didn't have a figure like her friends did. And most of the time people thought she was a kid, even when Gajeel met her he thought she was younger than she is, but he still gave a few more years than most people did.

He watched her think about what he said, she still had her cheeks puffed out and she was avoiding looking at him. He wasn't going to admit that he asked Juvia about her, not many people knew that he and Juvia were close friends. Juvia constantly asked Gajeel to tell her things about Gray, and Gajeel finally got pay back by asking her what she knew about the shrimp. Gajeel had one more comment under his belt, and it was either going to get him slapped, or kissed. Either way he knew he was right, she wouldn't look him in the eye and she constantly had a blush on her cheeks when he flirted with her. "I think it really pisses you off that you're attracted to me, because you think you have me figured out, and it's why you're being so defensive."

Her jaw dropped, and her face lit up. He was waiting for her to deny it and kick him out of her house, but she just looked the other way instead, muttering "whatever" before she walked into the kitchen to fetch the tea that was finally ready. He followed her into kitchen, trying to ignore the hurt look on her face. "Look, I wasn't trying to piss you off. Well, I was but not like that, I just like teasing you. I just think, we should we should get to know each other." Gajeel did not apologize, and he didn't really care enough to get to know anyone, why he was hung up on her was something he was trying to figure out. He wasn't to just come out and tell her that he's already put in ten times the amount of work he usually did with it came to girls, most of them would have already fallen into bed with him, and he would have been on his merry way.

Maybe it was the fact she was the one who disappeared on him, that was definitely a first for him, he usually had to cut ties with girls, he didn't deal with whining or tears so he didn't date in the first place. He wasn't the type to deceive people, he always told people his intentions from the beginning, if they assumed something more was going on than he said, it was their own damn fault. He was trying to read Levy's expression, he could usually figure out what people were thinking, and the shrimp looked like she was two seconds from telling him to eat shit and die. Sure it was obvious that they were attracted to each other, but that only got you so far.

* * *

Levy knew she was being childish, but she wasn't expecting him to announce that he knew she had a crush on him. She didn't think it was that obvious, but even now with him standing in front of her leaning against the counter she couldn't help but look him up and down. "I guess that's okay."

He smirked at her, "Good, let's hang out tomorrow, I'll come pick you up." She watched him retreat back to the living room, like that was the end of the conversation and he wasn't taking no for an answer.

"But, I work tomorrow." One thing she knew about Gajeel, was that he knew how to turn a no into a yes. That was the whole reason she kissed him on Lucy's porch, and why he was sitting in her living room, drinking tea out of her pokeball cup.

"You worked today too. What time are you off ? I'll come pick you up." She knew he wasn't going to let this go, so she just agreed to go with him knowing that he was going to argue with her until she did. She told him a time, trying to get him to leave soon, she knew he had to go before her mom got home. Levy really didn't want to explain having a boy in her house at this time of night, or the talk that would come immediately after.

She showed him to the door, hoping her mom wasn't already home. She made sure he grabbed his book and his jacket before he left, but he was still standing in the door way waiting for something. He finally gave her a smirk realizing she was clueless on why he wasn't leaving "Hey Shrimp..." He towered over her, his hands were on either side of her head, but he still left her enough room to escape if she really wanted to. "I'm near your door."


	8. Chapter 8

Levy was starting to feel like a bad friend, she zoned out of the conversation three times since Lucy started talking. The girls were taking up the back half of the diner like they did every other Saturday morning. She didn't get much sleep last night, and the little sleep she did was filled with dreams of a certain person she was trying her damnedest not to think of. The girls usually told each other everything, a lot of times they over shared, which is why she knew how half of her close guy friends were in bed and it was something she just didn't need to know.

Right now Levy was holding out big time, Lucy was going to kill her when she finally found out what really happened between her and Gajeel, and it wasn't a one time thing. What was she going to say? "Oh by the way Lu, I've been kissed already, and its happened a few times after that. And they aren't just ordinary kisses, its the kind that short out your brain. That was the only way she could explain climbing in his lap last night, sure she was already half way there when he helped her the rest of the way, but she didn't realize just how intimate that position was until she thought about it later.

Lucy was talking about some new lingerie store she found that actually carried her size in cute colors. All the other girls seemed pretty excited about it, but Levy never had a problem finding her size in a cute color or for a good price. Maybe there were perks to not having giant boobs. Between the talks of back aches, and trouble finding clothes Levy was bored out of her mind. She needed a distraction before she went to sleep on them, the only thing Levy could keep looking at with a smile was the red tint in Mira's hair. Apparently she was really mad at Laxus so Lisanna invited her to come to breakfast this morning, all the girls thought it was really cute, but Levy knew there was rage behind that smile.

Levy ordered herself another coffee by the time the girls started talking about their respective boyfriends. Juvia was in the middle of another rant about her undying love for Gray and all Levy could think about was the fact Gray never had clothes on. Maybe that's why Juvia was in love, could they both be perverts? Gray was a confirmed pervert with his stripping habit and all, Levy had her suspicions that Juvia was a closeted one.

"Levy? Why you're awfully quiet this morning." Levy didn't admit that she was incredibly bored, or that she was thinking about the person she had to sneak out the back of her house last night. Her mom came home mid lip lock, and she pretty much panicked and kick Gajeel out before he could blink. That was one lecture she was glad she avoided, but she had to face him later, and was definitely going to be teased about it.

"I closed last night, and now I have to open, so I'm dead tired." She sipped on her coffee hoping it would be enough to get her through her shift, and then maybe she would tell Gajeel she was just too tired to hang out with him. He probably wouldn't have took no for an answer, but it was worth a try.

* * *

Her shift wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, but it was dragging by really slow. Not that many people showed up so she didn't have that much to do. All the returns were put away, everything was clean, she was even able to start a new book, she got half way through it without interruptions. She was so tempted to hide in the stuffed animals and bean bag chairs in the kids section and just take a nap, if she set an alarm on her phone and locked the doors maybe she could get a cat nap in, its not like anyone would know.

It was nearing the end of her shift, and she was starving. She knew Evergreen was coming in to relieve her, but she always seemed to be late, or she showed up on time and would sneak off to see Elfman who she was pretending not to date. She was always either painting her nails, or reading gossip magazines when she was here, then she would make Elf come near the end of her shift and help her do all the things she neglected to do. She found out that Ever was good friends with Laxus when he showed up with two other guys to pick her up for lunch. One was a guy named Freed who she had a few of her college classes with. The other she recognized as Lisanna's very eccentric boyfriend Bixlow.

Levy was hoping that Evergreen was by herself today, she didn't quite understand why Laxus referred to her as a Jetpack and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She reminded herself to ask Gajeel later, but she had a feeling that she was going to be annoyed with the answer. She heard someone walk up behind her and after last night she was on her guard and wasn't doing to fall for it again. "Don't even think about it-" she turned around but it wasn't Gajeel behind her. "...Jet? Droy? What are you guys doing here?"

She didn't know why she asked, the fact they were both dressed up, and we're holding flowers was a dead give away, things were about to get really awkward really quick. Jet must have forgotten he was in a library because he was practically screaming at her. "Levy, I came to ask you to go on a date with me." Droy pushed Jet to the side yelling at him that he was going to say that.

Levy rested her face in her hands, she could feel a headache coming on. The same thing always happened, one of them would come ask her out and the other one would get mad because he wanted to, then they would end up fighting while Levy snuck away. She saw Evergreen come in and she took the chance to run before either boy could notice her absence.

The boys were blocking her path to the front door so she zig zagged through the isles hoping to escape unseen. She ran around a the final corner only to run straight into a brick wall, a very warm, very muscular brick wall. Levy felt a pair of arms around her, and that was the only thing that stopped her from landing on her ass. "That eager to see me shrimp?"

Oh this was fucking wonderful. At any moment Jet and or Droy were going to turn around and see her with Gajeel who still had his arms around her. She was never going to hear the end of it. This was the shit nightmares were made of. "Yup, let's go now!"

She pulled Gajeel out the door by his wrist, surprised she was actually able to move him. She was sure if he wanted to, he could have stayed where he was and then she would have had a hell of a time making introductions. "So you gonna tell me what that was about? Or are we gonna pretend that had nothing to do with you?"

Gajeel had actually stood there for a few minutes out of sight trying not to laugh at Levy escaping her would be suitors. Levy rolled her eyes explaining that Jet and Droy have been good friends forever and one day they both suddenly decided they were in love with her and she was constantly being fought over even though she always tells them both no.

"So... They're my love rivals then?" Levy almost got whiplash whipping her head around to look at Gajeel. He looked like he was trying to keep a straight face but he finally broke down and started laughing. "Saying that, actually left a really bad taste in my mouth."

Once the shock wore off Levy started laughing too, that was definitely number one on the list of things she wouldn't expect Gajeel to say. He admitted he had been spending way too much time with Juvia. "I'm glad you got a laugh out of that, now let's go shorty."

* * *

"That's not happening!" Nope, there was no way in hell Levy was about to climb on the back of Gajeel's motorcycle. She stood there with her arms crossed and her feet planted shaking her head back and forward. She didn't have a death wish and it barely looked like there was room for her in the first place with him sitting on it.

"Shrimp." He could shrimp her all he wanted to, the answer was no. Levy had hit her limit, she was already hesitant to hang out with him, and now he wanted her on the back of a death trap. "Can we skip the argument, and get to the part where you do what you said you weren't gonna do in the first place?"

That comment made her mad, now she was pouting with her cheeks puffed out. Sure she didn't have the best track record with telling him no and keeping it a no, but he didn't have to point it out like that. Gajeel was just asking for a punch, hitting him in the face would have probably hurt her more than him, but she was getting pissed off enough to give it a try. Picking up her attitude he decided to try something else. "What if I ask really nicely?"

Inwardly he sighed, rolling his eyes. Why was this woman being so damn difficult? Gajeel didn't usually ask people to do things, they just did it or he could be very convincing in other ways. On the rare occasion he did ask for things it wasn't nicely and he almost chocked thinking about saying the word please. He was used to getting his way, but Levy was putting her foot down on this one. It didn't matter what he said, there was no way in hell she was changing her mind. "Levy, will you please go out with me?"

* * *

Levy was mentally screaming, she was holding on to Gajeel for dear life and all she could get out was a "you better not kill me!" She could feel him laugh with the way her chest was pushed up against his back, she was sure she had white knuckles already and they hadn't even moved yet.

Levy needed to learn not to cave, and then she thought back to what he said and started freaking out all over again. She was glad no one could see how red her face was under the helmet. Did Gajeel just ask her out? Is this a date? Did Gajeel just ask her on a fucking date? She went to ask him, but they jerked forward and all she could concentrate on was not falling off.


	9. Chapter 9

Levy was really excited to be back on solid ground. As long as she didn't think about where she was and she closed her eyes really tight it wasn't that bad of a ride. She didn't even realize they stopped until Gajeel asked her if she was enjoying herself. She had a hard time unwrapping her arms from his waist and climbing off the bike because she was pretty much shaking, she wanted to kiss the ground and she didn't even want to think about the fact that was how she was getting home.

She caught her reflection in the window of the cafe she was sitting in, and she did her best to try and fix the bad case of helmet hair she had. She looked over to Gajeel who just came back with her coffee and was annoyed to see his long hair was still perfectly in place.

She was curious of how long it took him to do his hair in the morning, it always looked perfect, and she never actually seen him do anything to it. There was no way he rolled out of bed and it was just that perfect. " what's on your mind shorty? You're staring."

Staring was an understatement, she was full blown glaring at him, and he thought she was still pissed over the motorcycle thing. "Why is it, I have shitty helmet hair, and yours looks like it belongs in a shampoo commercial."

He smirked at her, amused by her indirect complement. "It's a gift." There was no way he was telling her how much he actually spent on hair care products. Girls got really mad when he told them maybe if they stopped buying shitty hair products, then maybe their hair would look better.

Levy did her best to ignore the word "shrimp" in big black letters on her coffee cup. She really couldn't complain since she ended up leaving her purse at the library trying to avoid Jet and Droy and now Gajeel was stuck paying for everything. He gave her the whole "like I was going to let you pay in the first place" speech, which made her wonder even more if this was a date or not. She decided to ask him at the end of the date just incase it wasn't one, she really didn't want to embarrass herself and then have to face him the rest of the day.

The cafe was really small compared to how it looked from the outside, it wasn't until she noticed how everyone else in there had a book in their hand did she realize the back half of the building was a book store. Levy had hearts in her eyes, a bookstore she hadn't been to yet was like a dream come true. She was giddy and Gajeel was laughing at the fact she was fighting to stay in her seat. "Gajeel can I-"

"Go for it shorty"

* * *

Levy was in her world, but she almost felt bad for Gajeel. Taking Levy to a bookstore was not for the faint of heart, and she didn't think he talked about anyone about today so no one had a chance to warn him about her dedication to reading. She had a second wind from her coffee and she was running around the store wanting everything. This store had everything, old, new, used books that were falling apart, and some that were still wrapped in plastic.

She lost Gajeel a while ago, after her second lap around the store he stopped trying to keep track of her. Levy was in her world, if this was the only thing today she would have been pretty excited. Gajeel was getting a hug, if this was a date, he already did a great job, he was forgiven for the thing with the motorcycle. Well until he made her get on it again.

Levy was walking past the manga section, and she saw something that made her the happiest girl in the world. They had the new issue of one of her favorite series, she didn't even know it was out yet. She just had to have it, she needed to know what happened with the story and now, the last book came out a year ago and she had been on her toes ever since.

She was really hating she left her purse at the library now. She just had to have this book, she was going to die without it and she didn't exactly want to ask Gajeel to borrow the money to buy this sort of thing. This manga was known for its suggestive scenes and adult material, most of the time she read it in secret, but she had a few friends that were also pretty big fans of the series. Maybe she could get the store to hold it for her, she only saw one copy and she wouldn't forgive herself if somebody got it before she did.

Levy picked up the book like it was precious, maybe if she just read the first couple chapters it would hold her off until she could come back tomorrow. She looked around to make sure nobody was watching her read something like this in public and then she dove into the story.

Levy was in her world, the author didn't waste any time getting to the good stuff, she was still in the first chapter and the main characters were doing everything that was hinted at in the last book. She knew she probably had a blush on her cheeks, the book wasn't skimping on the details, and she knew when she was done with it she was going to have to pass it on to Erza. She was so into the book she didn't notice the Gajeel sized shadow blocking her lighting until he pulled the book out of her hands and started using her head as an armrest.

* * *

Gajeel knew from the moment they stepped in the book store he was going to have a hard time keeping up with Levy. It was only the promise of coffee that made her sit down for as long as she did, and this place had the best. He didn't realize bringing a bookworm to a bookstore was going to be this much of a headache, I mean she worked in the library she should have had her fill of books already, but as soon as he blinked she was gone. Juvia was going to pay for this "Gajeel take Levy to a book store, it will be fun." Trying to find the tiny woman in the crowded bookstore was anything but fun.

He knew he shouldn't have let the her get a second cup of coffee, but she batted them damn eye lashes and let out a little yawn and he was sold. Gajeel didn't know when that shit started affecting his judgment but he was going to have to watch what he agrees to around her. This place definitely had the best coffee in town but it was really strong, she was probably going to be up all night. Right now she was running around like a kid in a candy store, he was gonna to let her run herself out for a while, and took the chance to sit down, finish his coffee and send a text Juvia.

He figured Juvia was a chick, she knew what girls liked, despite the light teasing he knew he would get from her, she seemed like the best person to talk to about this crap. The last date he went on wasn't even a date, he was forced to go to prom a few years ago with one of his moms friends kids. Gajeel spent the whole night thinking about how he would have rather chewed his own leg off, then spent another moment with a group of girls yelling "oh my gosh." every couple of minutes. It was worth it in the long run since his parents got him the bike he wanted for his 18th birthday.

Gajeel rolled his eyes when a text from Juvia told him to confess his undying love. Yeah because acting like her would be helpful, if some chick told him on their first date that she was in love with him, he would have probably ran for the hills, changed his name and joined the witness protection program. Gajeel didn't know why he asked her in the first place, If he listened to Juvia's advice, he would be walking around naked like that stupid boyfriend of hers. She must have Gray on the brain right now because everything she was suggesting was bull shit. He almost choked on his coffee when she offered to make him a Levy love pillow. That was enough of Juvia for today.

Gajeel looked around trying to find the shrimp, with her bright blue hair, and the yellow dress she was wearing today she was hard to miss. He wasn't surprised to see her nose in a book so he started reading it with her from over her shoulder. She was oblivious to the fact he was standing right behind her. Was she really reading a love novel?

He snatched the book out her hand, throwing his arm on top of her head and started reading the book in better detail. He held it right out of her reach, but she was fighting to get it back. "God shrimp is this the kind of shit you're into?" He raised an eyebrow at the pictures in the book, there were two girls in a position just friends don't get in.

Gajeel was about to ask levy just what team was she playing for, between her choice in literature and her kissing habits with her friends, he was starting to think he was barking up the wrong tree. "I'm not into anything! So give it back."

He laughed at her comment, it was so easy to tease her. Most of the time she set herself up for it. "No wonder you're so uptight." She blushed, she opened her mouth to say something else but anything she said would have dug her into a deeper hole. "So you wanna finish reading the thing you're not in to? Or are you ready to go?"

Levy shoved the book back on to a different shelf trying to hide it. Then she put as much distance as possible between her and the book as possible. She did not understand how somebody as tall as Gajeel could be stealthy, he was almost always sneaking up on her, she didn't know how because he practically eclipsed the sun. She stood outside waiting for Gajeel and was praying he wasn't reading the rest of the book. She didn't care that much that he knew she read that sort of thing, she just didn't want any spoilers.

* * *

Levy really wasn't ready to get back on his motorcycle so she was glad they were walking wherever Gajeel had planned next.


	10. Chapter 10

Levy didn't ever think she would get over the height difference when they walked together, he either had to slow down to a crawl or she would literally have to run to keep up with him. After the third try of trying to keep up with Gajeel and his stupid long legs she demanded that he either slow down or carry her.

She didn't think he would actually throw her over his shoulder, she was just kidding, now she was starting to feel like a sack of potatoes. Levy just wanted him to slow down, now she was holding on for dear life hoping he didn't drop her. Not to mention she was in a dress, sure she had leggings on, but they were white so she didn't know how reliable those were.

"Shorty don't ask for a ride and then complain about how it's executed." The way she was acting, people probably thought he was kidnapping her. If she wanted to be lazy and not walk on her own, she shouldn't have been whining about being on his shoulder, she weighed like nothing so it wasn't hard to keep her in place, even with her constant squirming.

"Gajeel! Everyone's going to see my underwear and I'll never forgive you!" God she was whinny, he rolled his eyes, if she was so worried about her panties showing maybe she shouldn't have wore a dress that short.

He was starting to think she liked having her ass out, as short as she was you would think clothes would reach a little farther than that far up her thighs. "You're wearing tights, but if you're that worried about it, I could always check and see if your putting on a show."

He didn't have to look at her to know she was blushing, and there wasn't much intimidation behind her threat of killing him if he dared taking a peek. "Whatever fun sized." She almost forgot that he saw those before, she knew he couldn't see anything right now because her underwear today actually said "short and sweet." Lucy wasn't the only one who bought her funny underwear, so she had quite the collection of sayings and cartoon characters.

Gajeel finally dropped her to her feet, Levy was glad to be vertical again, she brushed down her dress to make sure nothing was showing after her impromptu ride. She didn't know if she was more annoyed that she was carried around like a rag doll, or impressed that he was able to do it without breaking a sweat.

They made it to their destination in half the time with him being able to walk like a normal person and not a child, he was going to ask Levy what she had against milk as a kid, but he decided it would be better to tone down his teasing for the day. "It's a burger joint so you can't do that annoying thing where you order a salad and pretend you're not hungry."

Levy almost laughed at that, she knew a lot of people did that, but she didn't mind stuffing her face and she didn't care who was watching. "Just order me whatever you're getting." Gajeel raised an eyebrow at that, he had at least a hundred pounds in Levy, there was no way she could eat as much as him, even if she was trying. He had a bottomless pit of a stomach, and was actually kicked out of an all you can eat buffet. It didn't help it was him, Laxus, Natsu and Gray competing to see who could eat the most. But they shouldn't have put all you could eat on the sign if they weren't supposed to do it.

* * *

Gajeel ended up ordering less food for himself incase he had to finish hers. Levy looked like she ate like a bird, and a combo could usually hold him over for a while. It wasn't that he was cheap, he just hated seeing food go to waste. Gajeel sat across from Levy and was really confused as to where the hell she kept the phone she now had in her hand. "Shrimp? Where the hell were you keeping that thing?"

She didn't have any pockets, and she left her purse at the library and it wasn't like she had it in her hand the whole time. Did she have like a secret compartment in that dress or something. "Oh, it was in my bra."

Did all girls do that shit? One time he watched Erza pull a weapon out her cleavage to put a beat down on Natsu and Gray, that was the same day he decided not to cross her. Or to look at cake in the same room as Erza, that girls sweet tooth made her crazy. "That shit ain't a pocket, what else you got in there?."

Levy slid her phone back into the top of her dress and it practically disappeared. Were bra's fucking black holes or something. She wasn't that top heavy from what he saw, and if he wasn't blatantly staring at her chest he wouldn't have noticed the bulge on one side. "What? It's really convenient, and just boobs... Kinda."

She made a face, the minute she mentioned boobs her mood dropped, must have been a sensitive subject for her. He knew better than to tease her about that, he didn't want to be castrated by a mob of angry women. He knew how girls stuck together, even if he made a comment as a joke it wouldn't have ended well for him. "Anything more than a handful is a waste." He mumbled it, but from the blush on her face, she definitely heard him.

* * *

Levy knew Gajeel was up to something, for the last couple minutes he had been drawing on one of the cards they had at the table. She thought it was cute that they provided colored pencils and index cards at the tables and there was a board in the front of the restaurant where you could hang up your creations. Well that was until Gajeel started laughing at whatever he was doing on his card, every time she tried to take a peek he would move his hand so she couldn't see what he was doing. It was driving her insane, she was going to kill him if it was something stupid like her face on a shrimps body. He finally slid the picture over to her, it was a chibi version of herself, it was messy but she thought it was really cute until she saw her butt, she could feel her eye twitch in irritation."Gajeel why is my ass so big?"

Levy knew she fell right into that one when he smirked at her and said "Genetics?" Gajeel finally went to get their food and while he was gone, she took the time to draw her own version of Gajeel. She made sure to draw his piercings and muscles, his stupid smirk, sparkles around his hair and everything else she could think of. When he came back, he laughed at the little version of himself and told her to at least be accurate. "Shorty, I have more than just a six pack. Ask nicely and I'll show you sometime so you can count."

Levy thought she was going to die, all the blood rushed to her face, and she was sure she was about two seconds from a nosebleed. If it wasn't for the smell of food in front of her she was sure she would have passed out from blood loss.

* * *

"Shrimp. Knock it off. You don't mess with a mans food." Levy reached over the table again attempting to steal another one of Gajeel's fries, the first couple times he just glared at her. Then he moved on to the threats, now he was slapping her hand every time it inched over to his side of the table. Between her ride on his bike, the trip to the book store, and being carried upside down Levy forgot just how hungry she was. She polished off her fries a while ago, and she was working on her burger, but Gajeel's were just sitting there tempting her and she couldn't help herself.

Gajeel pinned up both of their chibi's, and she was hoping he didn't notice half of his fries were gone. At least he didn't have to worry about Levy starving herself, but he was going to go hungry the way she just kept digging into his food. Tired of fighting her, he just pushed them over to her. His pride was a little hurt that she just out ate him, and was laying in the booth in a full blown food coma. "I'm so full, can't we just lay here for a while." When he was finally done he had a hard time getting her to move.

"I could always just lift you. If you're feeling lazy again." Normally Gajeel wouldn't mind hanging out here a little longer, it was peaceful and it was never too busy. But he wasn't going to tell the shrimp that he sent a picture of their drawings to Juvia, and he had a feeling if they stuck around too long this was going to turn into a double date.

She smiled at him, he knew his threat was about to bite him in the ass. "Piggy back ride?"


	11. Chapter 11

Levy was trying her hardest to hold in her laughter, Gajeel was the one at a disadvantage for once and she wasn't about to pass up this golden opportunity. She would behave for a little while, lay her head on his shoulder and pretend like she wasn't doing anything wrong, but as soon as his guard was back down she would dig her fingers into his ribs making his squirm. "I swear you keep that up and I'm gonna drop you."

Gajeel knew he was fucked from the second she said "Hey Gajeel are you ticklish?" Talk about a loaded question, if he said yes, she was gonna do it just to torture him. If he said no, she was gonna do it just to see if he was telling he truth. Some of the spots she picked actually tickled and he would have to hold his breath not to laugh. He could deal with that, the shrimp thought she was cute. He'd get his payback later and she would be regretting her little game of poke the bear.

Other spots didn't exactly tickle, but instead we're going straight to his crotch, those were a little harder to ignore. . It was torture, he tried grabbing her hands to stop her, but she kept getting free. He tried dropping her off his back but she just held on tighter, and having her legs wrapped around his waist like that wasn't helping things either.

The damn innocent shrimp and her ignorance, he could deal with it if she knew what she was doing. If she was purposely trying to turn him on, he could be teaching her a lesson of another kind, who was he to deny a woman her needs. But if he told her that if she kept touching his neck like that he was gonna need a really cold shower he would have been a pervert. This was a losing battle, he heard her giggle again and he knew something was coming. How can a sound that was that cute, hide such mischief behind it.

As if it was on cue she cuddled her face into one side of his neck, and was running her fingers across the other side. That time it sent a shiver down his spine in the worst way possible. "Okay enough of that." He got a good grip on the back of her dress and pulled her on to his shoulder. "Try that up there and I can't make any promises about not dropping you."

Being carried like this backwards was one thing, facing forward was a whole new nightmare for her. She knew Gajeel was pretty tall, but seeing things from his point of view was like a whole different world. She stopped playing with him after that, Levy really didn't want to fall, so she just held on and complained the whole time. "Gajeel I'm sorry, now put me down." She had a full stomach on top of things and being able to see where he everything from this angle wasn't fun. She could pout all she wanted to, what Gajeel couldn't see wouldn't work on him

"Sorry shorty, I can't hear you over the sound of you being punished."

* * *

Gajeel didn't have a romantic bone in his body, but the shrimp sure seemed happy. He spent the whole day getting her to try new things, and today was definitely a first for him. He didn't hold hands, and kiss foreheads and do other pansy shit for girls. Yet here he was with his fingers laced through her smaller ones and with her head resting on his shoulder he would be lying if he said his lips didn't graze her face a few times.

He refused do half the shit Juvia suggested and what he did listen to, he did his own take on it. He wouldn't be caught dead in a fancy restaurant, why pay a bunch of money for a little bit of food? Levy didn't complain with his choice, and instead of seeing some dumb movie with a bunch of other people. She seemed content laying in the grass with him.

That conversation with Juvia made him want to shoot himself, First telling her than he asked someone on a date made her flip the fuck out, he knew it was coming, first she got all quiet but the moment the shock wore off she started squealing and shit. Then she nagged him to spill the beans on who it was, telling her it didn't matter just made her really mad and she started threatening parts of him. He really wasn't excited to admit it was one of her friends, and when she found out it was Levy, there was more squealing and then Juvia suggested a whole bunch of Disney princess bull shit.

Gajeel sarcastically asked her if he was supposed to go throw Levy in a tower so he could rescue her and shit, instead of taking the hint to knock off her fangirling, Juvia started giving him pointers on role playing. There was just some shit you didn't need to know about people, best friend or not. After the second hour of Juvia being the opposite of helpful he was wishing he would have called Laxus.

Sure Laxus was a dick, he would have just made some snide comment about Gajeel growing up, but he wouldn't be telling him to take pointers from an idiot named prince charming and shit like that. Gajeel was starting to wonder why this guy was in three different stories, Juvia said it was a coincidence that they were all called prince charming, but Gajeel just thought the guy was a player. Laxus was still pretty pissed at him for the hair thing, so he might have put Mira on the phone and then he would be in a suit or some shit.

He thought that he was doing okay, not that he cared or anything, if the shrimp started complaining about it he would just drop her ass at home and forget about the whole thing. Gajeel hated high maintenance girls, and Levy just seemed to go with the flow, sure she was a little bit hesitant with a few things, but all she needed was a little nudge and she was fine.

* * *

They spent the last hour talking, and now they were in a comfortable silence, he hated empty conversation and he was glad she didn't feel the need to force things. "Juvia says text her back right now, and she sent a mad face emoji so she seems pretty serious." Levy laughed staring at her phone, he had been ignoring her texts since they left the restaurant, he didn't think she would sink so low as to tell shrimp to relay the message.

He plucked Levy's phone out of her hand, he was about to text Juvia back and tell her to mind her own fucking business but he was stopped by her lock screen. "Got your phone locked so no one can see all the weird porn you look at?" She made an offender sound, trying to get her phone back from him but he kept pulling it out of her reach.

With the blush on her cheeks she wasn't very convincing when she squeaked out an "I don't watch porn!" Gajeel laughed at her, "that's pretty hard to believe after seeing your taste in literature." She was sitting on his chest trying to stop his game of keep away, but he was holding her wrist so she couldn't reach far enough. "What's wrong shorty? Forgot to delete your browser history?"

She made an annoyed face at him "Idiot, girls are smart enough to use stealth browsing." She totally just told on herself, he was going to make her admit it, there was nothing to be ashamed of, he didn't know why girls were so shy when it came to this sort of thing. Seeing her outside her comfort zone was amusing to him, and she wasn't going to stop him from having his fun.

That was until he felt her tiny fingers poke him in the ribs. Not this again. Before she could do it again, he flipped them over and was sitting on top of her with her hands pinned above her head. "You're gonna regret doing that."

She tried really hard not to laugh at first, trying to squirm out of his reach. But when he started tickling her sides, she couldn't take it anymore. She was laughing so hard, she couldn't even beg him to stop. Her ribs hurt and her eyes were watery by the time he let her go. She finally caught her breath after a few minutes and told him she thought she was going to die.

"Yeah, well I guess better give you mouth to mouth, you know, just to make sure you're doing okay." She wanted to tell him how smooth he wasn't, but his lips were on hers and she lost her train of thought. He was still on top of her doing his best not to squish her, she loved running her fingers through his hair, it was perfect for pulling him closer to deepen their kiss.

He always pulled away whenever she bit his lip, but she had a good grip on his hair this time and she wasn't letting go. He mentally groaned, why was this girl so stubborn? He tried thinking of anything gross to calm the situation down, but feeling her run her tongue across his lip piercings sent a chill down his spine he just couldn't shake.

Levy thought the way he kissed her lips felt amazing, but it was nothing compared to the way they felt going down on her neck.


	12. Chapter 12

Levy groaned, she was going to kill him, sure she had a good time today, maybe too good of time. The evidence was in the mirror, she turned her head again trying to figure out just how visible it was. She ran a brush through her hair again trying to lay it in a way to hide the big red mark that was now on her neck. She poked it again and winced, she was hoping she imagined it, maybe she would just wake up and it wouldn't be there in the morning. She didn't have any make up that would cover it properly, and a turtleneck in the middle of the summer just screamed I'm hiding something.

As soon as anybody saw it she was never going to hear the end of it. Who the hell came home with a hickey on the first date? Sure her and Gajeel were a special case, since they pretty much made out within the first five minutes of meeting each other, not to mention they were barely coming up for air for the past few days, but this was overkill.

She'll admit that she didn't really complain when he was putting it there, more like she was encouraging him when he was nibbling on her neck and there was definitely a bald spot in the grass where she was laying. What she didn't know was that he doing it to mark her as his, when she first noticed it he didn't even try to hide his guilty smile, he just gave her a half-hearted whoops. Jet and Droy were going to flip, she could imagine their tears now about someone defiling their poor sweet Levy.

Lucy was going to freak, first she was going to torture the details out of Levy, then she was going to call all the other girls so they could make her pay for hiding the fact she had a date in the first place. Every time she tried to talk to Lucy recently she was with Natsu, they were already up each others butt's before they were dating, but now they didn't leave each others side. She didn't want to give Lu the details between her and Gajeel with Natsu there, Natsu was Gajeel's friend and he might turn around and tell him all the stuff she said about him.

Her mom was going to kill her, she could feel the lecture coming, her parents were really over protective sometime and it was Levy's moms goal in life to make sure Levy didn't get pregnant in high school. Her mom had Levy her senior year in high school, and though she loved Levy very much, it was hard to do everything she planned for. Her mom was eventually able to do it, she finished college and became a doctor all with a baby on her hip, Levy really looked up to her mom for doing that. But ever since Levy became a woman, her mom wouldn't stop hovering.

She decided to deal with her new love bite in the morning, maybe she could run to the store before work, some good make up and a scarf she could probably hide the mark on her neck. She didn't have to work until late in the afternoon, but Gajeel kept her out all night and she was dead tired.

Staying out to watch the sunset, turned into watching the stars, she didn't get home until almost midnight since Gajeel insisted on going to dinner before taking her home. They ended up getting breakfast food at the dinner by the library and she started to wonder just how many people saw her neck.

* * *

He needed a shower, rolling around in the grass for a few hours was pretty fun, but now he was filthy. Gajeel even laughed at levy when she found a swing set in the park, he eventually joined her but knew he would probably break something if he was running around like she 's what he liked about levy, she knew what she liked. Even if he was teasing her about something she would brush it off and she would keep doing whatever she wanted. It reminded him of himself, he didn't give a shit either.

He hated people who tried way too hard to be something they weren't, high school was annoying when girls decided they had a thing for him and they would walk around in all black and say they liked all the things he was so boring, people would never take the hint, and he could be as shitty as humanly possible to them and they still wouldn't get the message. It wasn't until he gave them a full on "fuck off." did they finally leave him alone. What was it with these girls and their daddy issues, a guy refusing to give you the time of day meant move on, not try harder.

For somebody who didn't date, he was way too into the shrimp to let this go. Now apparently he had to ask her on a second date, and their were stupid rules about that or something. If he asked too soon he would seem eager, if he waited too long he would seem uninterested. But at the same time he was supposed to be himself, that shit made no sense. Gajeel was just going to pick her up one day and not give her the choice, she would come if she really wanted to, if not oh well she made her choice.

If Levy wanted to she would make time for him, it was actually the most helpful piece of information he heard, Juvia actually had some pretty good advice in that head of hers. After the party he hinted around that he might have a thing for someone. She told him you never really know until the first date and then she went on a twenty minute rant about how romantic her first day with gray was. Gajeel hadn't seen the shrimp for a while so he never mentioned it to Juvia again, it had been so long that she gave up hope.

But now she was sitting in his room demanding a play by play, how the hell did she even get here? He didn't even want to know how long Juvia had been waiting for him. Obviously she had been there a while, she was holding one of her many creepy ass Gray dolls. She was already half way through her carton of ice cream, and there was one on his desk waiting for him. "I ain't eating that, and you ain't touching my hair." Talk about an unpleasant surprise, it was almost midnight, he had to work in the morning and Juvia had that look in her eye that gave him the creeps.

Gajeel knew he had to cooperate or she was going to be here all night, so he caved grabbing a spoon for the ice cream she bought and let her play with his hair. "Don't you got chick friends you can do this with?" It wasn't the first time this happened, he would deny it to his grave that sometimes he let Juvia girl things up, it used to be a thing he would let happen when she was really upset. But now anytime she would want to talk about something either of them were uncomfortable with there would be ice cream involved, and Gajeel would be temporarily be sporting braids of some sort.

You save a girl from bullies once and you pay for it for the rest of your life. She demanded every little detail of their date, and if he tried to hold out Juvia threatened to ask Levy in front of a bunch of gossiping women.

Gajeel was lucky Juvia lived a couple houses down, he watched her practically skip home from his porch. Of course Juvia said a bunch of stuff that made him think, it wasn't like he had to work in six hours or anything. Tomorrow was going to be rough.


	13. Chapter 13

Gajeel almost forgot how much he hated homework,he put this assignment off until the last minute and now he was paying for it. He was only about halfway through this paper and he was ready to call it quits, he could always just miss one assignment. Too bad this one was worth twenty five percent of his grade. After hours of moping, and denial that he screwed himself over, he told himself he was going to he library to study again and not just because he wanted to see Levy.

He knew she worked today, and lucky for him she didn't work alone, but unlucky for him she was working with Evergreen. He knew with Ever being here he was going to have to be on his best behavior. Gajeel knew if he did anything to mess with Levy even a little bit, she would twist the story and spread it around time and there would probably be an angry mob waiting outside of his house by the time he got home. Plus the Levy was still a little bit peeved about what he did to her neck.

His talk with Juvia had been bugging him constantly, so he made it a point to only talk to Levy via text message lately, him being at her job, on a day she worked was just out of necessity. It's not like he started to miss the shrimp after not seeing her a few days, he just really needed to do his homework and being at home was too distracting. Him getting him an hour after her shift started was just by chance.

It was almost impossible for him to do his school work on days he worked, he always worked mornings, so the rest of the day he was just too lazy to function. So yesterday after work he just stayed at the gym for a few hours that way he could at least work on his body and try to ignore the raging war that was going on in his mind. Of course Laxus showed up and they tried to out do each other at every turn, he welcomed the distraction, the more he thought about kicking Laxus's ass, the less he thought about the homework he neglected to do, and the shrimp he admitted he had feelings for.

That talk with Juvia sure did a number on him, now on top of that he was sore, and he still had to finish his homework. Sitting in a chair reading was just about all he could do unless he wanted to subject himself to an ice bath. That would probably help him with more than one problem since hanging around the shrimp was causing him to take showers with a less warm temperature. Gajeel was trying his hardest not to look up every time Levy walked past him, he knew she was going to be a distraction, but he didn't think it was going to be worse than everything at home put together. Gajeel was fucked, he was getting nowhere quick, his paper was due tomorrow and he had to work first thing in the morning so there was no way he was doing it then.

He was really going to have to buckle down if he wanted to get this assignment done on time, but his mind just wouldn't let him do the work. He talked to Levy earlier asking her to keep him on his toes, but so far she wasn't doing a good job. It wasn't her fault he was a being a dick, every time she would come around he would pretend he was doing work, but every time she walked away he was back to bull shitting. At least he was going to have a high score in his game."Gajeel. That doesn't look like homework to me." Shit. When did she sneak up on him? He thought he was doing a good job of hiding the phone he was playing clash of clans on, he sighed giving up his cell phone to her. He told her it better not come back smelling like boob. "Idiot, what does a boob even smell like?"

"Come here and I'll let you know." He dodged the slap he knew was coming, he knew that comment would keep her away for a while. Out of spite she shoved his phone right into her bra and stomped off somewhere in the back. The less distractions the better, now if she could stay out of his line of sight he might be able to get something done.

* * *

Gajeel blinked and somehow another hour of no progress passed, he was still stuck on this stupid assignment and he didn't even have his phone to play with this time. He didn't even have an excuse for his lack of work, and he was about five seconds away from just taking a nap right there at the table. Gajeel tried reading the material but all the words just blurred together and nothing be read was sticking he was definitely regretting waiting until the last minute, and promised himself he would never do it again no matter how boring.

"Do you want some help?" Levy felt bad for him, he looked like he was dying of boredom, lying on the table with a miserable look on his face,and she was pretty sure his computer had been on the same screen the past twenty minutes. She sat next to him, plucking his papers from under his head and he watched her look at the material with an equally bored look on her face. "No wonder you're napping, I had this teacher last year and he always picked the worst subjects to research."

Gajeel raised an eyebrow, he heard that Levy was smart, but she was still in high school so he wasn't expecting her to say she had a teacher last year that he had now. She flipped to different sections in his book leaving little scraps of paper so he would know where to look and told him to use those pages to fluff up whatever he was writing. After about ten minutes of her helping him he was able to find everything he needed and type up the rest of his paper. It was amazing, she was able to simplify everything the teacher wanted done, and the assignment suddenly became ten times easier. Was she really just that smart? Gajeel wasn't dumb but he could be pretty lazy when it came to things like this, but she was able to get it done like it was childs play.

"Thanks Shrimp, you're a life saver." He wasn't going to make a big deal out of it if she wasn't, he could tell she was hesitant to help him in the first place, a lot of people found intelligence intimidating, and he could tell by the way she just brushed off his thanks that she was relieved he didn't freak out about it. Gajeel knew how much it annoyed him when people made a big deal about the sheer size of him, the way girls just fawned over him was annoying as hell, and some people hated him just because they thought he was a bad guy, sure he could be a dick. But people being shitty around him for no reason made him want to give them a reason.

* * *

Gajeel wanted to walk Levy home, but sticking around the library the rest of her shift would have just been torture, he made her promise to call him when she was walking home tonight. He knew he was being a little bit on the possessive side, but he couldn't help but worry about her. They didn't exactly live in the worse neighborhood, but the fact she was a woman alone made him worried when she was out at night. He knew Juvia could kick someone's ass if she was attacked and he still made it a point to make sure she made it home safe and she lived down the street.

But he knew he was being so protective of Levy because he wanted her, Gajeel wasn't a stranger to the feeling, it was usually physical and the feeling would pass the moment he zipped up his pants. Most of the time when he saw something in someone, he would find some fatal flaw to make himself lose interest. He already tried that with Levy and everything he could think of he didn't care about. The fact there was a four year age difference didn't really bother him the way he thought it would, he knew how old she was from the beginning and she was already way beyond her years.

He honestly thought her innocence was going to be a bigger problem than it is, a couple cold showers wasn't going to kill him. He would be an idiot to pass up getting to know a girl he actually clicked with just because she wasn't putting out. The other day he slipped up and made a play for second base and got denied, he liked that she wasn't afraid to put him in his place. The only thing that was holding him back was the fact he didn't really take rejection well, no was his least favorite word but he could get over it. He probably would stop talking to her for a while and brood about it, but it wouldn't kill him. But being the kind of guy he was, Gajeel would be coco blocking the shit out of anyone who tried to get close to her.

He needed to stop hanging around Juvia, he knew that putting your claws into someone just because you were interested wasn't the healthiest thing in the world, so he was going to stop being a little bitch and figure it out one way or another.


	14. Chapter 14

Gajeel hated everything about working on Fridays, the gym was always full of soccer moms. Perverted super moms who requested him overtime they needed something. He hated these ladies. They hit on him like they weren't his mothers age, and made promises of making him their little boy coworkers thought it was hilarious, Gajeel thought it was hell. He went through this with them every week, they all suddenly forgot how to use a treadmill, yeah because hitting the on button was so fucking hard.

Some of them made promises to bring their daughters next time, and one lady insisted he would be perfect for his son. Gajeel always groaned at that one, weren't moms supposed to keep their kids away from guys like him. Gajeel wondered if this is what girls felt like, he's punched more than a few guys in the face for catcalling towards Juvia. Why did people have to be such fucking creeps, especially these cougars, didn't they have anything better to do?

After being sexually harassed most of his shift he was glad it was almost over, he was gonna snap the next time one of those Pervy soccer moms pulled his hair one actually had the balls to pinched his ass, and tell him he was doing a good job. His phone started vibrating in his pocket and his first though was what the fuck did Rogue do now? "Shrimp?" He did his best to hide just how excited he was that Levy was calling him right now, maybe that meant they could hang out later. He wouldn't mind being around a normal woman, after being stalked by a group of predators.

"There are eight gossip hungry girls outside my house, and they're going to get in because Lucy has my spare key!" She was trying to whisper at the same time. Gajeel was laughing at her pain, he only had to deal with a talking to from Juvia, and that was bad enough. Seven other women and Gajeel would have chewed his own leg off to escape.

Gajeel could just imagine it now Levy trying to hide under the window in her house pretending like she wasn't home. She was small he was sure she could find a good hiding place while her friends ransacked her house looking for it. "That sounds absolutely terrible shrimp, I hope you have fun in hell." He could imagine how mad she was going to be when this was done and over with, not to mention it was his fault she was in this situation in the first place. Evergreen being her nosy self asked him what was going on with him and Levy and instead of telling her nothing, he told her to mind her own damn business. She would probably come for revenge and yell at him, but Gajeel wasn't about to deal with a bunch of squealing women.

"If you don't help save me right now, they're gonna break me in under five minutes and be on their way to you next. And Gajeel I won't skimp on the details, and one of them is Juvia so they'll know where to find you." His smile dropped on that bit of information, he was going to call Juvia out for her traitorous ways. Gajeel already had a bunch of old women annoying him at work, he didn't need a bunch of young squealing ones too.

"Okay, okay. I'm at my work right now, but if you can escape just hide out at my house until the heat clears."

* * *

That was one hell of a wake up call, Levy had about sixteen text messages from Lucy and the girls this morning and one from Juvia telling her to run. She barely had time to pull on a jacket and some yoga pants before sneaking out the back door and climbing into her neighbors yard. She felt like she was in the clear once she made it to Gajeel's house. When she caught her breath she finally called Lucy back and told her she went downtown with her mom today and wouldn't be back until tonight. She kept avoiding Lucy's question of "Do you have anything to tell me?"

She tried faking bad cell phone service but Lucy wouldn't let her off the phone until she promised to come over later so they could talk. Maybe by then she could figure out what she needed to tell her, Lucy wasn't going to be happy with a I'm kind of seeing someone right now. Levy knew this was going to turn in to a sleep over from hell, and she was going to put it off as long as she could.

She finally called Gajeel back. "God you run fast." Levy probably looked insane running the six blocks to Gajeel's house. This is not how she planned spending her day off, waking up early just to run a marathon.

She found the key to the basement right where he said it was, she wasn't going to admit she had a hard time reaching it, but she finally got in. "Nobody should be home right now, but if Rogue does he won't bother you. But if he comes in my room... End him."

Levy laughed at that, she could imagine Gajeel throwing a fit about Rogue being in his room. He told her to make herself at home but not to go through his shit or he was going to come over her house and get payback, but that just made her want to do it more. It was already 11:30 and he promised to be home in an hour. That meant she had more than enough time to snoop.

After a while she started to feel bad and decided to watch tv instead. She was jealous of how big his room was, she barely had space in hers with all of her books. Gajeel seemed to have his own mini apartment down here. She reminded herself to look around better later so she could move stuff around without him accusing her of being nosy. She was starting to wonder why someone needed a bed this big, but then thought about the fact Gajeel was over six feet tall. She felt swallowed up by the many pillows on his bed, and was starting to wonder if she would have sat on the couch instead.

She blushed when she discovered his black sheets were silky, how somebody slept said a lot about someone, and apparently Gajeel slept in style. The central air was on and she was a little bit cold, but she thought Gajeel coming home to her all snuggled up in his bed would be a little weird.

After about ten minutes she heard someone coming down the stairs and she thought maybe Gajeel got off of work early. "Do I even wanna know?" Levy paled when she realized it was rogue standing at the bottom of the stairs.

She thought about what Gajeel said earlier about killing rogue if he came in his room. She was pretty sure rogue knew how Gajeel felt about that too, from the look on his face he knew he was busted, and it was only matter of time before Gajeel found out. "I didn't see you, you didn't see me?"

Rogue raised an eyebrow which reminded her so much of Gajeel but they would probably both be annoyed of she mentioned it. "Deal." Rogue walked back upstairs without getting whatever he came down there for and decided to try again later when there wasn't a witness. He was pretty bummed because he wanted to wash his hair and Gajeel had the best shampoo.


	15. Chapter 15

After an extremely rough day at work, Gajeel thought it was cute coming home to a sleepy little shrimp, she was curled up on one of his pillows with his TV watching her. He was sure she already drooled all over the place and was going to tease her about it when she woke up, she barely stirred when he kissed her on the forehead and pulled a blanket over her sleeping form. Pulling off her shoes was a bit of a challenge, but she just rolled over and cuddled the pillow even more. If it wasn't for her bright blue hair he wouldn't have even noticed her curled up in the middle of his bed.

Gajeel was feeling gross, he usually showered at the gym after work but with Levy hiding out at his house he just came straight home. Not to mention he really didn't want to be caught naked with a bunch of perverted Cougars running around his gym. And he didn't want to risk being cornered by a bunch of Levy's friends just in case Juvia decided to open her mouth. If they showed up here, he could always throw Rogue to the wolves while he snuck out the back. He had a fun time explaining to Juvia that he didn't want her to come over not because he was mad at her, but because he had company.

For some reason she wouldn't take the hint and Juvia thought somebody was replacing her as his best friend, to stop her crying he finally had to tell her that it was Levy, and of course that cued an earsplitting scream, followed by teasing. Gajeel tried to ignore the question of is he going to ask her out? Juvia had been nagging him the last couple days about it, she even had the nerve to mention Jet and Droy. Gajeel jokingly called them love rivals but Juvia was serious about them being a threat. To shut her up he said fine and hung up before she could start more of her screaming, he didn't get why she was so up his ass about this, but Juvia was a girl so he was going to trust her judgment.

Washing his hair was going to take forever, he was glad he was at home to do it, now if he could do it without the hot water running out he could turn this day around. Levy was still asleep so he could take his time, and if she woke up she could fend for herself for a little while. Gajeel needed a nap, but there was no way he was about to climb in his bed with sweaty hair, even if it looked so much more welcoming with Levy in it.

* * *

Levy didn't realize she fell asleep until she heard the sound of the shower in the next room. She looked at the time on her phone and realized she must have been asleep a while. Gajeel must have come home a while ago because her shoes were off and she was covered with a blanket, plus the credits of the movie she was watching were on and she could only remember watching it half way through.

She laid back on to his bed ready for part two of her nap, she worked late last night, and then she stayed up reading a new book. She promised herself that she would sleep in today but her plans were ruined when she had a mob of friends outside of her house. She was hoping Gajeel would just let her sleep a while, she wasn't really in the mood to do anything. Plus she was in clothes she usually ran around the house in, she wouldn't usually wear something like this in public. She looked down at her mismatched socks and laughed, somehow she was able to find a jacket that matched her shoes but she couldn't find two of the same socks.

Most of the things she owned were in bright colors, but orange was her favorite so she was sure she looked like Halloween today. She had on a light orange jacket, it was a gift from Lucy and she liked it because it was soft, and the way it was made it hid the now fading mark on her neck. Her yoga pants said "Love pink" on the back of them, and she was hoping they weren't see through, she didn't usually wear something so tight in public and these were like a second skin. If they really were see through like she feared she was sure Gajeel would be glad to tell her.

She didn't hear the shower turn off, but she definitely was paying attention when the door opened and Gajeel walked out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel. Her jaw dropped and her breath was caught in her throat, she finally had an answer to the question of what more than a six pack was. She knew he was in pretty good shape, but she couldn't in her wildest dreams imagine what she was seeing at the moment. He looked like he was carved from marble, it was all muscle, still glistening from his shower. She could feel her face burn up by just looking at him.

She mentally screamed at herself to stop staring at his body, but she found it impossible to look away. He either thought she was asleep, or forgot she was there because he was putting on one hell of a show. She squirmed in her seat trying to ignore whatever was going on between her legs right now, she wasn't stupid, but she didn't think just staring at someone would have that sort of reaction on her. She mentally groaned, if this was his way of trying to seduce her, he was doing a really good job. Levy wasn't usually boy crazy, but she was no stranger to attraction, but this was on a whole different level.

She would never in a million years admit that she had more than her share of dirty thoughts about Gajeel, if he found out that after their date she was up half the night with a dirty book and her hand down her pants he would never let her live it down. The stories from her friends, and all of her books did not prepare her for actually having a naked man in front of her. She was torn between running away before things got heated, and just saying screw it and handing him her virginity on a silver platter.

Okay Levy all you have to do is look at his face and you'll be fine, it was a good theory but it didn't help things at all. She couldn't help but stare at the way his wet hair was framing his face, her eyes raked down his chest then all the way to the v cut that disappeared into his towel. No way in hell she was ready to see whatever he had going on under there, but she oh was she curious.

Her peeking through her fingers was just an accident, she wanted to respect Gajeel's privacy and this was his room so he could walk around as naked as he wanted to. All Levy could think about was the fact she was a big fucking pervert and she was going to pass out the minute she saw him naked. She knew she should have said something, stopped him from exposing himself to her prying eyes. But her words were caught in her throat, and when the hell was she ever going to have a chance like this again.

She wanted to cry in both relief and disappointment to see he had boxer briefs on under his towel, not that they left much to the imagination. She was still watching him when he was using his towel to dry off his hair and decided she had more than enough of an eye full today before her teeth went through her lip. She laid back on the bed and sighed, she was trying to calm herself down and stop creeping on Gajeel at the same time, he was still drying his hair and she was glad he didn't notice she was up yet.

* * *

Gajeel was completely oblivious to Levy's inner battle or the fact she had been gawking at him for the past couple minutes. Out of habit he went in the bathroom without any clothes and didn't realize his mistake until he got out of the shower. The only thing he had in his gym bag was underwear so he was going to have to tip toe out of his own bathroom. He thought he was in the clear when he came out of the bathroom and the shrimps eyes were still closed.

He really needed to wash his clothes, his room was in the basement so he didn't really have an excuse for not doing laundry. It took him a while to search through his clothes to find a pair of pajama pants, he found a shirt but there was no point in putting it on with his hair still wet. It took him a while to blow dry his hair, but he didn't want to wake Levy up. He was going to go upstairs and use Rogue's but when he turned around Levy was already awake. She looked a little over heated, he did turn the air off when he came home, and she was still in a jacket so she probably got hot in her sleep.

Levy didn't notice the bed dip, or Gajeel crawl over to her until he had his hand on her face."You doing okay shrimp? You're looking a little red in the face."Levy jumped and her face lit up all over again she was glad he finally had pants on, but he was still half naked and leaning over her and it was making things worse. Levy was trying really hard not to look at him, and she finally lost it and told him to put a fucking shirt on. He smirked at her when he found out that was her problem. "Are you always this cranky when you first wake up? Or is there something I can help you with?"

The look on her face let him know she was busted, he already knew Levy was attracted to him. She did a bad job of acting like she wasn't and as tempting as the situation was he wasn't going to do anything about it. He would probably tease her about it later, but for now he was going to let that one go. He played dumb kissing her forehead and told her it didn't feel like she had a fever. Shrimp if you need me I'll be drying my hair, and putting that fucking shirt on before you start nosebleeding all over the place." He laughed when he barely dodged the pillow that was thrown at his head.


	16. Chapter 16

"Shrimp you still over there moping?" He could tell she wasn't paying attention to the TV, and he was watching her not watching it. She was doing that really cute thing where she pouted and puffed her cheeks out, she had her arms crossed and was sitting as far away from him as had been trying to get her to talk for the last minutes and she either gave him short answers or just made an annoyed sound. He was starting to think this was karma, he was known well for doing that to people and it was a little funny on the other side.

Gajeel was going to have to pull out his secret weapon, if he could get her to smile, he could fix that attitude she had and then maybe he could get back on her good side. He knew she was acting like that because she was embarrassed, but its not like he was the one watching her prance around in her underwear "Hey shrimp, do you wanna see something that's even cuter than you?"

She raised her eyebrow at that, she was still being standoffish, but she agreed as long as his clothes stayed on. "If I can make you smile, will you take a nap with me?" Gajeel had been fighting sleep since he got home, working at 6 in the morning always wore him out, but he didn't want to just go to sleep with Levy here. He was relieved when he came home and she was already out, he was pretty surprised when she woke up, but he saw her yawn more than once so he knew she was pretty tired too.

"We'll see." Gajeel knew he had her now, he left Levy downstairs and went and grabbed the two cutest things he could find.

Levy knew she was being childish, seeing Gajeel half naked was a total accident and she was the one being the creep about it. She knew it was wrong but she was going to keep that image etched in her memory for a long time. She should have known from the beginning that he was going to find out and tease her about it. Even now she couldn't stop staring at him, he looked different lounging around in batman pajamas and a black tank, she knew what that shirt was hiding and she thought it should be a crime.

She was really curious about whatever he wanted to show her, she swore to herself if he came downstairs empty handed and pointed to himself she was going to hit him. Gajeel was pretty full of himself so she wouldn't put it past him to do something stupid like that. She was actually pretty surprised when he came back with a cat in his arms and another one perched his shoulder. The one on his shoulder was all black with a white mouth, it had a scar by one of its eyes and a bored look on its face.

"This is the best cat ever, his name is Pantherlily, we call him Lily for short." Gajeel picked him up and started playing with him, Levy thought it was really cute when Gajeel started running his nose against the cats and it slapped him on the head with his paw to make Gajeel stop. "Damn cat." The cat called Lily came over to her and started rubbing its face against her and purring. Gajeel muttered something about the cat being a traitor and moved on to the next one.

The other one was still a kitten, it was a little green cat dressed up in a pink frog costume. "This little shit is Rogue's cat, his names Frosch, and he talks too much." As soon as Gajeel stopped speaking the cat meowed at him, Gajeel explained every time anybody said anything the cat would meow immediately afterward. "This little guys really cute, but his meowing gets old fast." The cat meowed again cuddling up against Gajeel's stomach.

"I like Lily better, he keeps me on my toes, and is always up for a fight." Gajeel tried to pet the cat in Levy's lap, but Lily attacked his hand instead. He likes waking me up by jumping on my face, the little ass hole. But I've never been late for work because of him.

The cat called Lily jumped on the back of Gajeel's headboard and walked around getting comfortable before Frosch followed him doing the same. The smaller cat had a little bit of trouble but used one of Gajeel's pillows to finally make it up there to cuddle with the other cat.

"They're different, but they get along, you know like me and you."

* * *

Levy was in love the minute Gajeel brought the two cats down to play, watching Gajeel interact with the both of them have her a smile she couldn't wipe off of her face. She thought it was cute, how Gajeel was proud of Lily for being a fighter, and he was sweet to Rogues cat because it liked to follow Lily around.

He kissed Lily on his head and dodged the incoming paw, she could tell they did this a million times, but Gajeel still went in for the kiss even though Lily would hit him and Lily just snuggled up to Gajeel before running off to do other things.

Frosch being a kitten, he was sweet back to Gajeel, when Gajeel kissed him the cat licked him back in return and then followed Lily with a little help from a pillow and Gajeel. Both cats were cuddling on Gajeel's headboard, and she couldn't help but have hearts in her eyes over the adorable cats and how Gajeel was acting with them. She blushed at his comment about them getting along, she and Gajeel were polar opposites but they were spending a lot of time together despite of it. Sure he teased her about things, but he was never serious about it. He would make sideways comments towards her and laugh at her reaction.

Levy was actually glad for the chance to go back to sleep, the last time they took a nap together was pretty much hell, she was sore for days after sleeping on that floor, and she was pretty embarrassed to hear she practically climbed on top of Gajeel in her sleep. When they spent the day out together she actually dozed off when they were watching the stars, so she knew she wasn't going to be uncomfortable sleeping next to him. Gajeel liked to make jokes, but he wouldn't creep on her, he never pushed her if she told him to back off. More than once his hands tried to wander towards her ass, but he always took his time doing it, so she had time to stop him.

She was starting to hate the fact that every time she slept around him she drooled, she didn't do it at home, so why the hell did she have to do it around Gajeel. She knew she was drooling earlier for a different reason, but to her horror she threw a pillow at Gajeel and it would be the one she decided to drool on while she was sleeping. She was so embarrassed she wanted to die when he pointed it out. "I take it you want me to keep my shirt on?" Levy's face turned red and she nodded, she could sleep next to Gajeel just fine, but sleeping next to a shirtless Gajeel was just temptation she didn't need.

Levy was a little hesitant to pull off her jacket, she knew the shirt underneath was a little on the see through side, but she thought she was staying home today so it didn't matter. Gajeel probably wouldn't have noticed, even with her wearing a v-neck shirt and a push up bra she didn't have much going on in the cleavage area, and Gajeel always seemed to be making comments about her butt instead. "Oi, Shrimp, stop trying to show me your goods. If I got to keep my shirt on so do you."

* * *

Gajeel was trying to hide anything the cats could get in to, sure they were sleep now. But Lily liked to knock stuff over, which is why the shelf that was the top of his headboard was now empty. Too many things had been knocked on his head while he was asleep and he leaned his lesson about that being Lily's spot in his room. Every once in a while the cat would cuddle with him, but it was usually during thunderstorms and a scared cat meant Gajeel wasn't getting much sleep that night. As little as Frosch was, he was already good at being a little shit like Lily. A few times Rogue came in his room and didn't shut the door behind him, so Frosch would go in his bathroom and go crazy with his toilet paper. It was really hard to be mad at something so cute, so he took his anger out on Rogue instead.

After Gajeel shut the bathroom door, and hid anything that could break, he turned off his TV and hit the lights before climbing next to the shrimp, she was trying to pull her jacket over her head and her shirt was coming off with it. He gave the bottom of her shirt a tug to put it back in place and told her if he had to keep his shirt on so did she. He knew how she would have reacted if he saw anything, so he didn't mention the fact he noticed the jewelry in her navel, or that she already pulled her shirt over her bra by the time he helped her out.

He was laying in the middle of his bed like he usually did, and he was trying not to laugh at he fact Levy was laying as far away from him as possible with her back to him. "Hey Shrimp, what are you doing way over there?" He was going to keep playing dumb until she either caved, and told him why, or she finally stopped acting so shy.


	17. Chapter 17

Fighting Gajeel was hard enough, but fighting herself on top of it was making things impossible, she really wanted to roll over into Gajeel's arms, but she couldn't stop thinking about the show he was putting on earlier and it was causing problems. She tried to make herself sound playful and not fearful, she wasn't going to admit that his walking around undressed had her all hot and bothered, the last thing she wanted to do is feed that ego. So she tried playing coy instead, "I think we agreed to a nap, nobody said anything about cuddling being included."

Levy knew it wasn't the best excuse, they've slept next to each other before, and they had already been in a handful of intimate positions, Gajeel always made it hard for her to keep her hands to herself. She liked running her fingers through his hair, and their size difference always made her feel safe in his arms, it was all so tempting, but she didn't know if things started how far they would go before they stopped. Usually when she was feeling this way around him, they had been tangled up in each other for a while and he always stopped things before they got serious. But it always happened somewhere they could be caught.

She had no idea what would happen if they started kissing now, she was already to the point where she wanted to do more than kiss him. She had to stop herself from wondering what it would feel like to run her hands under his shirt. And if she did that, would it give him an open invitation to do the same? Gajeel always warned her when she was taking things a little too far, she did it without knowing, but even after he told her she would still push things until he stopped her. Levy wasn't very experienced so she was relying on Gajeel to be the voice of reason, if she accidentally pushed things too far and then stopped would Gajeel stop liking her because she was being a tease.

She had enough male friends, and read way too many novels talking about how that was a bad thing, how some girls purposely dangled sex in front of a mans face to get what she wanted and never went through with it. That wasn't her intention at all, everything was still new to her so she still didn't exactly know what was the right and wrong thing to do. She already knew Gajeel was sexually experienced and ever since their date she had been wondering just how long would he be satisfied with just kissing her.

* * *

Gajeel knew something was up with the Shrimp from the moment she woke up, he figured if she wanted to talk about it she would, but he wasn't going to deal with that attitude of hers another minute. He gave her a chance to come over to him willingly, but when she told him that cuddling wasn't included in their nap he was done with her shit. "Oh, really?" He laughed at the way she squeaked when he pulled her into his arms, she was so tiny he didn't have a problem flipping her over to face him. "You know Levy, this whole hard to get game you're playing doesn't work so well when you're already hooked."

She had a death grip on his shirt, and was doing her best to hide her face in the crook of his neck, but she wasn't complaining. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her their bodies together, and laced his legs with hers. Levy could act like that all she wanted to, Gajeel was getting comfortable so he could go to bed, and then he could deal with Levy when he woke up. He finally felt her relaxed and he was almost sleep when he heard her mutter a reply to his earlier statement. "What makes you think I'm hooked?" It was a half-hearted question, if she really meant it there would be a lot more bite in it. Gajeel already expected Levy to fight him at every turn. He didn't have the best track record with women, the fact he gave a shit about Levy was a surprise even to him.

He was already more asleep than wake so he couldn't think of a witty comeback, he didn't even realize that he admitted out loud that he was hooked too.

* * *

Levy knew the fight was over when she felt Gajeel's arms wrap around her, she should be used to being manhandled by now, but it still surprised her, when he pulled her into his arms and turned her around to face him. "You know Levy, this whole hard to get game you're playing doesn't work so well when you're already hooked." He had his arms wrapped around her waist, and his legs were tangled with hers so she was going to have to face him even if she didn't want to.

Her fingers were already gripping his shirt, and she knew at any moment he would kiss her and make her brain stop working. She was trying really hard not to meet his gaze because she knew that's what he was waiting for, she ended up pushing her face into the side of his neck and groaned trying to calm herself down from the sudden contact. After a while, she stopped fighting it an finally relaxed, she finally thought about what he said and it made her wonder if her feelings for him were that obvious, if they were did that mean other things were to? Did he know she was freaking out about the thought of having sex with him and he was telling her not to? Wondering about it was going to drive her insane so she tried to slip in a question before he went to sleep. "Gajeel?" He didn't answer her at first, he just kind of grunted a reply. "What makes you think I'm hooked?"

His eyes were closed but he still smirked at her, she wasn't really expecting an answer but she was even more surprised to hear. "Because I am too."

Levy was having a really good dream, she was finally able to convince herself to sleep after she realized she couldn't move, Gajeel was using her as a pillow, and every time she tried to move he would just hold on tighter. She was trying really hard not to read too into Gajeel's confession, but at the same time she wanted to text all her girlfriends and get their opinion on what he said, too bad her phone was out of reach. She knew what he said, and she was pretty sure she knew the meaning behind it, she just didn't know what to do with the information. When Gajeel shifted in his sleep she was finally able to get comfortable, she ended up laying her head on his chest and wrapping her arm around him.

* * *

She wasn't exactly sure what it was that woke her up, but the more things she became aware of, the more embarrassed she was. The first thing was the position they were in, Levy had her leg across his waist which wouldn't have been too bad, except for the fact, she could definitely feel something pushed up against her thigh. Levy's face lit up when she realized exactly what it was, and she was so not ready to deal with that. She was trying to move away slowly, but she felt Gajeel stiffen when she tried to change positions. She thought about just rolling over incase Gajeel did wake up, and she could just avoid the whole situation all together.

First she checked his shirt where her head was just laying, and she was relieved that for once she didn't drool on him. Gajeel still had his arm wrapped around her, and when his grip tightened she noticed he was up. She was expecting him to tease her, or maybe make a comment about their current situation, but he was just sending a death glare near the bottom of his bed. Levy followed his line of sight, and noticed a very guilty looking Rogue at the foot of the bed. "I'm gonna give you ten seconds to rectify the situation, and then you might just die. I haven't decided yet." Levy thought Rogue was going to make a run for it, with the look Gajeel was giving him that's what she would have done. Gajeel had murder in his eyes, but Rogue dipped into the bathroom instead.

She heard him practically growl when Rogue went the wrong way, Levy hadn't even gotten to 7 in her countdown when Gajeel got up and stood outside the bathroom door. She was witnessing first hand the stealth he had, it was the same thing he used to sneak up on her all the time. She knew this wasn't going to end well for Rogue and she was wondering what was so important that he would willingly piss Gajeel off, and it was probably her fault because she caught him trying to sneak down here earlier. Whatever it was, Rogue must have thought it was worth the risk.

Pissed was an understatement, Gajeel woke up to a squirming shrimp, and his idiot brother knocking shit over in his room, he thought maybe Lily or Frosch were up to something, but they couldn't make that much noise together if they wanted to. For Rogues sake it better have been his fucking ghost in his room that wanted to give Gajeel a last good bye. Gajeel glared at him, and Rogue was stuck like a deer in the headlights, Gajeel was thinking of some creative shit to do to him, no matter how many times he warned Rogue he still did exactly what he was told not to do. That idiot even managed to wake up Levy with his dumb assery.

He gave Rogue to the count of ten to disappear and instead of running towards the stairs like a good little boy he ran into the bathroom like Gajeel didn't know what he was up to. Now he was really dead, nobody touched Gajeel's shit and lived to tell the tell, and you died twice as fast if it was his hair products. Gajeel moved Levy off of him, and did a quick tuck on the boner he was currently sporting and patiently waited for his idiot brother to try to make a run for it. He really didn't want to beat Rogue's ass with a hard on, but the kid just had a death wish today. Gajeel crossed his arms standing outside the bathroom and waited for Rogue to finally reappear, there was only one way out of that bathroom and Gajeel was blocking the path to freedom.

Rogue thought maybe if he was careful he could avoid Gajeel and make it upstairs safely, if he could do that he would be in the clear, Gajeel wouldn't chase him and then Rogue could lay low while Gajeel called down. What he wasn't expecting was Gajeel to already blocking his path as a human road block, and running into him was like trying to bounce off of a brick wall. Gajeel barely flinched, but the momentum knocked Rogue on his ass, making him drop his prize. Rogue felt himself be lifted and he knew it was over when he was thrown over Gajeel's shoulder. "You said I had until ten!"

"You forfeited that when you decided to be an idiot." Rogue looked for Levy for help, but she looked just as annoyed with him as Gajeel was so he knew he lost an ally there. He knew Gajeel was either going to kill him, or throw him outside head first. At least with the ground he had a chance of survival, Rogue knew he only had a few seconds to reason with him.

"Come on Gajeel, you wouldn't do anything violent in front of your girlfriend." He knew he was fucked when Gajeel told Levy to close her eyes. "But I just came down here to get Frosch, you know the importance of a man/cat relationship." He knew his excuses wouldn't help, but maybe if he groveled enough Gajeel would have second thoughts on killing him in front of Levy.

Levy couldn't help but laugh at the two brothers interact, Rogue was good at annoying his older brother, and Gajeel was just trying to get rid of his headache. She remembered before Gajeel complained that Rogue was always invading his personal space, and most of the time he brought Sting with him. He said that him and Laxus sometimes had to take turns punishing each others brothers because they would do something stupid and then hide out at the others house. Levy wouldn't have been surprised to see Sting run out at any minute, and then she wondered if Gajeel would just throw him over the other shoulder.

"Lil!" Levy watched Lily pick the smaller cat up by the back of his costume and follow Gajeel up the stairs. After a minute she heard a loud Rogue sized boom and she was hoping Lily gave Frosch better treatment than that. She heard the door slam and watched Gajeel stomp back down the stairs with Lily perched on his shoulder.


	18. Chapter 18

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gajeel was learning the hard way he shouldn't say everything that went through his head. Or at least he should think of the consequences if it came out the wrong way. Girls were so sensitive, Juvia constantly flew off the handle when Gajeel talked bad about Gray. By Juvia's definition anything that wasn't "Yeah, I think he's awesome too." was unforgivable. Sometimes he thought she was doing it just to mess with him, but other times he thought she was just being insane. He understood it to a point, he would be pretty pissed if someone was talking bad about Levy but he wouldn't try to shove how awesome he thought she was down everyone else's throat.

A mad Juvia was bad enough, but somehow he managed to say the wrong thing to Levy at least once a week. It was really hard taking it seriously though, a little angry shrimp was just cute, so he couldn't guage how angry she was until she started yelling. Last time Gajeel was trying to give her a complement but apparently "You're ass looks really big in those jeans." was the worse thing you could ever say to a woman. He wasn't even trying to call her fat or anything he was accused of, but she still ripped him a new ass hole and yanked on his poor hair.

What made it worse was Juvia was on her side, telling Gajeel how cruel he was. Gray was no help he just stood there looking like an idiot, while Gajeel had an angry woman in each ear. Wasn't the point of the whole double date thing was they were supposed to help each other out when they fucked up? Gajeel got his revenge later, when Juvia was being way too lovey dovey towards Gray and Gajeel decided to just look the other way, and stopped Levy from helping too. Gajeel wasn't a fan of other peoples pda, but he let it happen just to watch Gray squirm.

* * *

He tried to get ahead of the fight this time, it wasn't a bad thing, he was just making an observation. "Shrimp, I didn't mean it like that." Gajeel didn't know how he managed to piss her off this time. He always knew how to get under her skin, he liked to tease her, and she would give him shit back. But this time he really wasn't trying to piss his tiny girlfriend off. He knew it was over when she puffed out her cheeks, crossed her arms and stomped off ahead of him.

Obviously him telling her she was too innocent to do something meant she was going to take it as a personal challenge. He knew her going through with it wouldn't be the end of the world, but letting her do something out of spite would make him a really bad boyfriend. The title was still foreign on his tongue, it was a little over a month ago that he finally manned up and asked her if she wanted to make things official.

He wouldn't admit that he stressed about it for about a week straight, every time he was ready to ask her, something would get in the way and he just kept postponing things. Getting Juvia off his back was hard even after he finally asked her because he refused to admit his undying love. There was a such thing as being too supportive and Juvia was the poster child for it. The fact Laxus was the one who gave him decent advice was still a big shock. He told him to just be honest and be himself, there's no point in trying to act different around a girl, she either wants to be with you or she doesn't.

Laxus decided to end that tender moment by jumping on Gajeel and sitting on his back as he laughed and read his text messages to Levy out loud. What a fucking dick, obviously Laxus held a grudge like a woman because Gajeel did something very similar less than a year ago. And Laxus jumped at the chance for revenge. He finally got tired of waiting and decided to ask her in the middle of one of her rants, he picked her up from work and she was complaining about how she had to kick Jet and Droy out of the library and ban them for the rest of the week.

Apparently they were fighting over her like they always did, and managed to knock over a display when their fight went too far. Gajeel would never understand why those two had selective memory and kept trying to pursue a girl that's made it obvious she wasn't interested. Gajeel knew that Levy was special, and getting rejected by her would suck, but if she wanted him to back off he would. She hated being treated like she was some shiny trophy and she was ready to cry about how shitty her day was.

He knew it probably wasn't the best time to ask her, but after a week of failed attempts he was finally fed up with waiting. "Well, shrimp if you would give me a proper answer, you wouldn't be on the market to be fought over like that." Levy rolled her eyes, Gajeel just loved teasing her, and she knew he was trying to lighten the mood. Whenever she complained about Jet and Droy Gajeel always offered to have a talk with them, and she already knew Gajeel's version of a talk was a threat. She didn't want three guys fighting over her, the tug of war on her was bad enough with those two, if Gajeel decided to join the fight it would just to piss them off, it was the whole reason she hung out with them separate. She knew that she had been complaining since the moment he picked her up and was probably ruining their date, so she tried her best to just forgive and forget her best friends and their stupidity.

Gajeel was terrible at this, they were on their third date this week because he asked her if she wanted to go out with him, and every time her response was "Sure what do you want to do?" He wanted to face palm, he didn't know how he kept fucking this up, but he wasn't about to miss a chance at trying to woo her, and keep her away from those idiots at the same time. The more he hung around Levy, the more he had to deal with them, he wouldn't admit he was jealous that he had to share her, but it didn't help that they were all trying to pursue the same girl. "Gajeel? How am I supposed to give you a proper answer, if you didn't ask a proper question?" She could tease back when she wanted to, she knew something had been bothering Gajeel lately but if he wasn't going to speak up about it, she wasn't going to pry.

Gajeel sighed he was either just that bad at dating, or the shrimp was just oblivious. As smart as she was she wasn't picking up the hints and he was literally going to have to spell it out for her. "Levy, I am so not good at this, but if you want to I'm willing to give it a try." He wouldn't look her in the eye, but he was staring at the way their fingers were laced together. She was so much smaller than him, but they still seemed to fit together really well. "I think we should make things official."

He wasn't sure if he was more surprised that Levy tackled him, or the fact she was able to knock him on his back. "Of course you idiot! What took you so long?" She tried to pout but she couldn't get rid of the smile on her face. He still teased her about her giving him a look Juvia would have been proud of. But right now she just looked annoyed.

* * *

"Shrimp I just meant it doesn't seem like it's something you would do. Not that you couldn't do it." Gajeel crossed his arms and did the best imitation of her pouting trying to make her laugh. Instead she shot him a glare that rivaled his own. It was still pretty cute, but it was a meaner look that he had ever seen on her. "That was actually pretty good." That made her smile, she was a little bit jealous that Gajeel could make people do what he wanted with just a look, it didn't work on her, or Rouge apparently. But it struck the fear of God into other people. She tried using it and Jet and Droy recently and she was able to stop the fight before it started.

Levy was flexing her I'm eighteen now, you can't tell me what to do muscles. Gajeel saying something dumb wasn't the only reason she was sitting on a table in a tattoo shop. She knew Gajeel was right to a point, she probably shouldn't do something just because he said she wouldn't. But she was already here and she was honestly pretty interested in it. It wouldn't be her first piercing, she had her ears pierced, and for her sixteenth birthday she got a navel piercing. When Gajeel told her he was coming to get his tongue pierced today, she perked up and asked to come with him. When she mentioned that she might do it too, he laughed and told her she was too sweet and innocent for a piercing like that. Now she was sitting in one of the rooms waiting for someone to come and shove a needle through her tongue. "I'm already here, and if I don't like it I can always just take it out."

Gajeel wasn't going to argue with her anymore, she could do what she wanted to and he figured it could be a nice bonding experience. They could be miserable together, Gajeel knew first hand how annoying oral piercings could be when they were healing. Now he didn't have to worry about trying to explain to Levy that he probably wouldn't want to be kissing her for the rest of the week. "Okay shrimp, but were both going to be out of commission for a little while. Wanna make out one last time before we seal our fate?"

* * *

Levy offered to go first, if she had to watch Gajeel and he was in pain she probably would have chickened out. She was holding Gajeel's hand and closed her eyes because she just couldn't watch it happen. When she got her navel pierced she couldn't see what they were doing so she was surprised when she felt the little jolt of pain, but it was over almost as soon as it started. She knew the whole healing thing was the most annoying part of all piercings, so she was going to have to go home and look up ways to make it less terrible.

Having someone else's hands on her mouth wasn't the most comfortable feeling in the world , and she just kept waiting for the pain to come. She told the lady doing her piercing not to count down, so when it actually happened she wouldn't tense up. Levy was surprised to hear an "you're all done." If it wasn't for the new foreign weight in her mouth, she would have thought she was kidding.

She was staring at the new little silver stud in the mirror. It felt weird but she would get used to it eventually, she tried to stick out her tongue and the bottom of the piercing hit her teeth. She thought the bar was too long but she needed room for swelling. Levy practical paled when she was told once the swelling started she would probably have to deal with drooling. She wanted to smack Gajeel for making a snide comment about her already having a problem with that.

Gajeel made jokes about her turning eighteen and going wild. Sure a piercing may have been mild to some people, but it was a big step for her rebelling as an adult. She could finally make her own decisions without running around asking first, but she already knew she was going to hear it from her parents. She turned eighteen on Sunday and it hadn't even been a full day later and she was going to go home with a piercing in her tongue. She was never going to hear the end of it.


	19. Chapter 19

Levy was hating today, when she woke up this morning she was hit with the swelling everyone was talking about. When she came home last night her mom was surprised to see her new piercing, but then she teased her saying that it was going to get infected and her tongue was going to fall laughed it off, her mom was a doctor, if she really thought there was a problem with it, she would of had Levy take it out the moment she saw it. But now this morning she was paranoid.

She thought maybe there would be a little bit of swelling and it wouldn't bother her too much, the piercing itself she didn't feel at all. But now the bar she thought was too long she could barely see. Of course that freaked her out and she was on the internet this morning doing research. She tried her best to stay away from the what could go wrong section. She knew if you went on the internet searching about the headache you had, it had a way of convincing you that you only had a week left to live. The most unforgivable thing of all was that she couldn't drink coffee so she was going to be extra cranky at work this week.

* * *

The pain pills she took this morning was wearing off and she was starting to feel miserable again. The library was pretty much empty, school didn't start until next week so everyone was trying to get their last bit of fun in before summer break was over. She really missed Lucy, she knew she'd be home before school started but she spent the last few weeks on vacation with her dad and Natsu. Levy couldn't wait to hear just how that went, her dad and Natsu didn't get along very well, but maybe being stuck together for a month would change that. The last time they hung out together Lucy was so excited about going on a cruise Levy didn't get the chance to tell her she actually had a boyfriend.

She avoided telling people about her summer romance with Gajeel because she didn't want to get her hopes up, Gajeel was terrible at talking about his feelings and she really didn't want to deal with "what happened?" questions. Or her friends forming an angry mob if things didn't work out. But now that they were official she couldn't wait to brag about him. She knew Lucy would kill her if she was the last to know, and telling her via text message just wouldn't be the same. "What's eating you shrimp?" She should be used to Gajeel sneaking up on her by now, but how he magically appeared in front of her made her wonder if he actually crawled in or something. She didn't want to talk because she knew she sounded funny, but she knew Gajeel would probably find a way to make her mad enough to yell in a library.

Gajeel tried really hard not to laugh when Levy muttered out a "nothing." He felt bad that she sounded like she was in pain and was probably fighting back the whole drool thing, but she sounded ridiculous, like she was in the middle of a game of chubby bunny. He had the same problem this morning, but he spent his whole shift at the gym, with a mouth full of ice, and a big gulp in his hand. "I brought you something..." Gajeel figured she was just as miserable as he was this morning, and she was working alone today so she couldn't leave if she wanted to.

Levy had never been more excited to see a slurpee in her life. She was even more excited when he sat a cup of ice on top of the counter next to it. She wanted to jump over the counter to hug him, but she didn't want to risk knocking over her precious cups of happiness. "You're the best!" That time Gajeel did laugh at the way she sounded, earning him an annoyed look.

He stole a kiss from her, but it was just a tease, he knew he was going to be suffering for a while, just because after a few days he would be willing to try it, Levy would be putting up road blocks when it came to them kissing again. He sat her on the counter, it was pretty much the only way they would be eye level with each other. He tried to go in for a kiss again, but he already knew a peck was all he was getting, this was going to be rough. She climbed over the counter like she wasn't in a damn skirt, gracing him with a panty shot. She always seemed to be climbing over shit in the library instead of using doors. He was starting to think she was doing it on purpose, setting him up. Hey Gajeel look at my panties but don't let me catch you doing it or I'm gonna yell. "I got shit to do, but call me later. And have fun with your boyfriends." With his best poker face he told her bye, the next time she dragged him to go shopping with her, he was buying her pants. A lot of them.

Levy almost forgot she had a birthday date with Jet and Droy later. She was finally going to tell them about Gajeel, she didn't know how she was even going to eat tonight. She texted the boys asking them if they wanted to go shaved ice instead. She didn't want to spend a bunch of money and not be able to eat, and thought maybe ice cream would soften the blow of her confession later.

* * *

Levy knew this conversation was going to be rough before she even sat down, they were going to find out sooner than later, and hearing it from someone other than her would probably hurt a lot more. Jet and Droy being her best friends of the past ten years, she already knew how they were going to react, Jet was going to take it a lot better than Droy, but that still wasn't saying much.

Okay Levy it's time to put your big girl panties on and rip off the bandaid. She didn't know if she just blurt it out randomly, or if she should just wait until one of them started fawning over her and slip it in before they started fighting each other.

Currently they were talking about how their summer was, Jet spent a couple weeks with his dad who lived out of state, and Droy went to camp for a little earlier in the month. For a while Levy was feeling a little bit lonely, with Lucy spending all her time with Natsu, all three of her best friends were MIA since the beginning of summer break.

She loved spending time with Gajeel, but sometimes she just wanted to cuddle up and read with Lucy, or go on a random adventure with Jet and Droy. She remembered last summer, they were together everyday, they got lost a few times and had to find their way home. The summer before they all worked as camp counselors and spent all their time teaching kids everything from arts and crafts, to how to swim and start a campfire.

This summer they all got jobs in different places, and only got to see each other a few times a week. That seemed like a lot to some people, but when you were used to being attached at the hip with people you really started to miss each other. Ever since they hit puberty Levy's mom didn't allow her at their sleepovers anymore, so they couldn't do it every weekend like they used to.

This school year was going to be hard for her because both of them were starting college, and she still had a year of high school left, but they always promised to be best friends forever so they would find a way to spend time together. She knew once the sting wore off she was going to find a way to bring her three favorite guys together.

* * *

Levy knew she was eventually going to have to tell Lucy too, but Jet and Droy were going to take it pretty hard, and Lucy was probably going to celebrate. "You guys..." They didn't seem to hear her, if she had to say it twice it would probably make things worse.

Jet was sitting next to her, he slid in the booth while Droy was still ordering his ice cream, and was pretty angry at Jets trick. They had all been like siblings forever, and when they decided they had a crush on her, she thought it would ruin their friendship. If she said yes to one of them, the other one would be crushed, so she made it a point to avoid that at all costs.

"You guys..." Right now they were arguing because Droy thought they should switch seats so they could both have a chance to sit by Levy, and Jet told him he was being stupid. She knew they would start fighting at any moment and she knew she had to get it out sooner than later or she was going to have to try another day. "I'm seeing someone."

All conversation stopped, and after a moment of awkward silence. Jet gave her a smile he deserved an Oscar for telling her how great that was and Droy and just kind of stared at her dumbfounded. "I'm not sure how serious things are yet, but I just thought you guys should know." Levy didn't think telling them she was already head over heels, would sit well with them, so she just told them what they needed to know.

Levy thought they were taking it better than she expected, but an awkward silence hung in the air after her confession. She originally was going to wait a little bit longer and see how things were going with Gajeel. They had been seeing each other for a while, but had only been officially dating less than two months. But jet and Droy almost caught the two of them kissing last week and she really didn't want them to find out like that.

They spent the rest of the time catching up, and they seemed to be good spirits so Levy was really happy about that, it started to get dark, so they started walking home, and she was a little surprised when they asked in unison when they get to meet him. Levy thought about the fact Gajeel was meeting her parents on Friday, and she couldn't invite them to that. Levy's mom demanded to meet her boyfriend the minute she told her she had one. Her dad was still out of town but he was supposed to be back on Thursday, so they postponed celebrating her birthday until he came back.

"Soon guys, I promise!"


	20. Chapter 20

Levy kept telling herself that she should be used to this by now, it didn't matter how important something was to her, her dad never came through. She didn't know why she got her hopes up this time. Over the years he managed to miss everything, from spelling bees to dance recitals. All of her school dances she would have to send him pictures. She was expected to do well in school so he didn't even bother showing up when she won awards and was honored, the list went on and on. Eighteen years of being let down, and for some reason she thought today was going to be different.

When she talked to him yesterday, he told her he would probably have to stay late, and with him probably was a definitely. He said "Don't worry honey, If anything happens, I'll just take the red eye home." Levy ended up falling to sleep on the couch waiting for him, she was always excited to see her dad. Making him welcome home cookies, and a cup a coffee is something she had been doing since she was old enough to touch the stove. When she woke up this morning, she had a message from him saying that something had come up, but he promised to be here tonight. Her calls went straight to voicemail all day, when six o clock finally rolled around she had given up.

She knew that her father was a busy man, but she got sick of him constantly putting his work before her. He missed her actual birthday for the sixth year in a row, and she even postponed celebrating this year so he could be here. Eighteen was supposed to be an important year, she was finally an adult, but she sat in her room crying like she did all the other times her dad let her down. Eventually her father sent her a text telling her that he wouldn't be back until Sunday, and that he would find a way to make it up to her.

At this point Levy didn't really care, he already ruined today, there wasn't really anything he could say to change that. She took the day off work, so did her mom and Gajeel all for nothing. There was a cake sitting in the fridge that was going to have to wait to be cut into, but the way she was feeling she wasn't going to wait to dig into her ice cream. She was laying in bed wrinkling the dress she bought for the occasion. She went through the trouble of dragging Gajeel to the mall, and he suffered through her trying on more dresses than she could count. He even bought a tie to match her dress, and promised to wear it, it would have been nice to see Gajeel all dressed up. The first time Gajeel mentioned his annoyance to having to wear a suit, she spent way too much trying to imagine it.

Gajeel teased her when she asked for a preview, "You're just want to see it on the floor, don't ya Shrimp?" Gajeel constantly accused her of being a pervert, she knew he was kidding, but he didn't know just how right he was. Every time Gajeel told her not to do something, she would purposely do it as much as possible just to make him squirm. She really wanted to see him today, but in the middle of her throwing a tantrum she completely called off dinner. If she hadn't laid in her room for an hour crying they might have been able to make their reservation. Her mom could have actually met Gajeel, and she could have had a good time without her dad.

But instead she ignored the knocks on her door from her mom, she already knew what she was going to say, it was the same thing she said every time her dad broke one of his many promises. "Honey, just try to understand." When she was a kid he came home with a giant teddy bear and she forgave him immediately. But him trying to buy her forgiveness lost its appeal over time. The last gift she actually liked was a signed set of hard cover Harry Potter books, and that was after he missed her eighth grade graduation. Most of the time it was stuff he grabbed out of air port gift shops, on one of her shelves she had a collection of snow globes that was just a constant reminder of how much he wasn't there.

Her mom was at least home most nights, being an er doctor meant crazy shifts, but she could still remember her mom waking her up for school and making her breakfast every morning. Her mom came to everything and recorded it all, it was honestly the only way her dad saw anything.

* * *

Levy was all cried out, she finally went and picked up the phone she threw in her chair after Gajeel told her to stop acting like a brat. Sometimes he was just way too blunt, she told Jet and Droy the same thing and they were supportive, Gajeel on the other hand told her that she was ruining her own day. That really set her off, she spent about five minutes trying to decide if she should rip him a new one, or just hit him with the silent treatment. She sent him a message that just said "fine." That was pretty much girl language for fuck you.

She picked up the doll Juvia made her that was laying on the grown, she felt bad for abusing it, it managed to get kicked off of her bed in the middle of her rage. She thought it was an odd present, but Juvia took the time to make it for her so she loved it even more. She knew Gajeel would hate it, he always talked about how weird it was Juvia had a crap ton of Gray dolls, and now Levy got a Gajeel doll for a birthday present. What made it even funnier was the "I love Levy" on the dolls shirt, she knew when Gajeel saw it he was going to say the shirt should have said "Shrimp," Juvia really spent a lot of time on the details, it had little silver balls sewed on for piercings, and she sewed on a frown instead of a smile.

She scrolled through her texts ignoring the "sorry sweetie" from her dad. She knew the rest of the message was going to have promises about him making it up to her, but she didn't want to hear about it tonight. She replied to the group message from Jet and Droy, telling them she was fine, it wasn't a big deal and she really didn't them breaking their necks trying to cheer her up. They were great friends, but sometimes they were just a little too attentive, and she didn't feel like she deserved to be cheered up right now.

Levy wanted to ignore the three texts she had from Gajeel, he didn't sugarcoat things and she didn't really want to be scolded right now. Levy liked to over analyze everything, and she worked herself up a lot of the time, but she kind of wished he would have just been on her side for once. She opened the first one, and she didn't know what to expect, knowing him probably not an apology. "Look, I know you're upset and stuff, but I ain't gonna baby you."

She rolled her eyes, of course that was his response, Gajeel didn't deal well with emotions. The few times she did get upset around him, he either told her to breathe, or to suck it up and deal with it. Not everyone could be like Gajeel, if something pissed him off, he let it be known, and it wasn't often something pissed him off a second time, unless it was Rogue. Rogue went out of his way to annoy his big brother at every turn, and because Gajeel had a soft spot for him, he made a lot of threats, but didn't do much about it.

"You're acting like that trying to get back at your dad, and your only punishing yourself." Usually when Gajeel told her something she didn't want to hear, it would be mid-hug so she couldn't escape. The last text made her feel like the brat he called her earlier. "You're moms there right? Stop acting like that doesn't matter." Now she just wanted to hug her mom, she didn't think about how her mom must have felt, dad let her down too, and then Levy was throwing a fit in top of it.

* * *

Her mom was in the living room reading, Levy laid her head on her moms lap like she always did when she was upset. She thought she and her mom looked alike, but her mom was blonde, and Levy got her wavy blue hair from her dad. They were both short, but her mom had a few inches in here. "I'm sorry mommy."

"Don't worry, I'm mad at him too." Levy's mom always joked that she had more diamonds than a jewelry store, Levy wasn't the only one who her dad tried to bribe. She had a hard time accepting that her little girl was growing up. Levy was her only child, and she had a hard time letting go when Levy wanted to do the things a young adult did. When she finally finished medical school, she had a hard time letting someone else take care of Levy. Going from a full time mom who saw every scrape and bruise, to a working mom who only got the high lights at the end of the day was hard. She loved spending time with Levy when it was just the two of them. But she guessed sharing her with a boyfriend wouldn't be too bad "Something smells really good."

* * *

Levy's mom tried to keep it a surprise, but the aroma wafting through the house was a dead giveaway. "You're boyfriends in the kitchen making dinner." To say she was surprised was an understatement, a while after Levy ran up to her room, there was a knock at her front door. The very tall, very pierced young man introduced himself and then proceeded to kick her out of "his" kitchen.

She liked Gajeel, she sat at counter connecting the kitchen to the dining room for a while. With Levy not around she could throw him the hard questions and decide if she was going to give him a hard time or not. She always taught Levy not to judge a book by its cover, but Gajeel was already annoying the shit out of her, but he amused her at the same time. She wanted to grab him by the ear and teach him some manners, her husband was a sailor so she knew a thing or two about profanity, but every other word out of his mouth was vulgar. At one point she told him "he better stop fucking cussing." Which made them both laugh, but he didn't slow down, he just muttered a sorry after every time he let anything dirtier than damn out of his mouth.

The first thing out his mouth after she invited him in was "I see where shorty gets it from. You two look like a couple of fairies. " She had to laugh at his bluntness, Levy was always bothered by her height. But everyone in their family was under six feet, so tall shelves and high items were a problem for them. Both she and Levy had to climb on top of the kitchen counters to get anything her husband put on the top shelves in the kitchen. Gajeel reached it with ease, and she thought about letting Gajeel stick around just because of that.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Levy mentioned her boyfriend didn't really have a filter and she was learning that almost everything he thought came right out of his mouth. To some people it probably seemed rude, but she liked his honesty. She was feeling a little but pampered, it wasn't often she had somebody cook for her. And the way to a woman's heart was her stomach. But she wasn't going to let him off that easy, Gajeel was way too comfortable, she wouldn't be a good mom if she didn't at least give him a little bit of shit. "So Gajeel? What are your intentions with my daughter."


	21. Chapter 21

Gajeel felt bad, his shrimp was upset, and he couldn't really do anything about it. He knew all about broken promises first hand from his own dad. His parents split up when he was three, and his mom remarried a few years later. He really didn't see his dad after that, he up moved halfway across the county and for the longest time Gajeel only saw him on holidays. Gajeel couldn't help but feel abandoned after that, he gave Skiadrum shit for years, constantly telling him he wasn't his real dad, and when Rogue was boring things just got worse. It wasn't until a young Gajeel got himself into big trouble, did he appreciate all that his step dad did for him.

After many unanswered calls to his father, he finally had to call Skiadrum for help. Gajeel was expecting a lecture, he knew how much of a brat he was, and getting arrested wasn't the greatest influence for Rogue. He should have just let Gajeel sit in jail for the night, it would have taught him a lesson, the cops all talked about how they would have loved to put him in a scared straight program. The only cop who would ever give him a break was Gildarts, he told Gajeel he had anger issues, warned him that he was going to put someone in the hospital one day with that temper of his. It seemed like it was once a week Gildarts had him by the ear and standing on the front porch because Gajeel got into a fight again.

For the longest time Gajeel ignored all the warnings, he refused to admit he had a problem with his anger, and after getting a slap on his wrist every time he messed up, he actually ended up putting some kid in the hospital. It wasn't even his fault, some idiot picked a fight with him, Gajeel just finished it. But Gajeel was the one who ended up in a cell, he just knew he was going to get grounded for life, his mom was going to send him to military school or something stupid, they were going to cut his hair, and his life was going to be over.

Gajeel wasn't expecting his step dad to give him a free pass, instead of punishing him, Skiadrum gave him a choice,"I won't tell your mother about this, if you agree to get help and stick with it." Five hundred hours of community service seemed like hell at first, but Gajeel eventually liked spending his time taking care of animals. It taught him the patience he needed, he couldn't just run around being shitty to animals, so he learned to just breathe and take a minute before he did anything. Gajeel found out he liked animals more than people, and ended up volunteering at the animal shelter even after his time was up. It was there he met Pantherlily, he just couldn't leave the black cat behind when he was done with his community service, they had a hard time finding someone to adopt Lily because he liked to fight so much, and it seemed like him and the cat belonged together. Gajeel even gave his mom the eyes when he brought the cat home, if that wouldn't have worked Gajeel would have threatened to move out and live on the streets just to keep Lily.

It took a long time, but Gajeel finally stopped hating his father for leaving him, he always asked the question of why was it Rogues father was around for everything, but his own never around. It wasn't until his sister Wendy was born, did he finally agree to fly out and see his father. It wasn't the kids fault there was bad blood between Gajeel and Metalicana, and now Wendy was his favorite person in the world. It took a lot of growing up, but eventually Gajeel got past his hurt feelings and learned to accept that he had two families.

His step mom was great and even went out of her way to set up a room for Gajeel when he visited. He made sure to talk to Wendy everyday even if it was just for a little while, and he spent most of his Holidays with his fathers side of the family. As much as rogue annoyed him he was still always looking out for him, and Gajeel got in his shit if he was being too bratty. Gajeel had enough teenage angst for their parents to deal with for a lifetime. So whenever Rogue got out of line, Gajeel took care of it before a problem started.

* * *

With Levy he didn't know the whole story, but the way she was lashing out wasn't the answer. He wished when he was younger somebody told him acting out the way he was, that he was just hurting himself. He knew by the way Levy texted him back she was pissed at him. "Fine." Was as good as a middle finger when it came to girls, but she was acting bratty and somebody had to tell her to knock it off.

Gajeel wanted to laugh when a blonde version of Levy opened the door, her hair was on top of her head in a messy bun the way Levy had hers sometimes, and it made him think of that Tinkerbell chick from Peter Pan. She looked tired, but she had the same bright eyes and welcoming smile when she invited him in. It made him wonder, if she had the same sass Levy often hit him with.

She laughed when he made a comment about her and Levy looking like they could be fairies. She promised to show him pictures of the many times she actually dressed Levy up as one. Apparently that was the shrimps favorite thing to dress up as for Halloween. With her wild blue hair, bright eyes and small size, Levy did resemble something you would see in a storybook. "Your brat still whining?" Dealing with Levy while she was upset could be pretty hard, and by the way he said it Levy's mom could tell he witnessed her mad firsthand. She still had nightmares about a little Levy throwing temper tantrums when she wouldn't but her that new book she wanted. Nothing like your six year old crying in the middle of the store, "But why don't you love me?"

Gajeel refused to let Levy's mom help him in the kitchen. He wanted to do something nice for his shrimp, so mom was going to have to take a backseat and watch. Gajeel was bad at small talk, and he wasn't going to try and force it just to try and impress her mom. He didn't believe in trying to impress people by acting like someone other than himself, so he almost chocked on the water he was drinking when she came out and asked him what his intentions with Levy were."Um... I...well, They ain't bad..."

Smooth Gajeel, real smooth, What the fuck was he supposed to say? Juvia didn't prepare him for this, her answer for everything lately was to either follow his heart and mushy shit like that. And he wasn't going to pull a her and talk about love and shit, he really cared about Levy he didn't think either of them were ready for that. "Gajeel you can stop sweating , I was just teasing you."

He wanted to thank whatever God that just saved him from that hell. He knew as soon as Levy heard about that she was never going to let him live it down. He was trying to fight the blush that was on his cheeks, it didn't help her mom was laughing at his reaction. "But don't make me kill you." Her tone went from playful to serious, and it honestly sent a chill down his spine. "They'd never find the body." For some reason the little laugh she had behind it made that comment a hell of a lot scarier. How the hell could tiny women be so fucking terrifying? Levy warned him about her dad being over protective. But her mom was threatening to remove his manhood with a scalpel if he got out of line.

All of her jokes were really distracting while he was trying to cook, he knew she was just messing with him, but he wasn't going to keep taking that shit lying down. He was trying to keep up with her, but a couple times Gajeel was just at a loss for words. Gajeel almost dropped the dish he was holding when she asked him when he was going to propose. "You think you're jumping the gun a bit there mom? Do you mind if I learn her middle name before I marry her with a shotgun in my back?"

Gajeel didn't know how Levy lived with this woman, if it wasn't an invasive question, it was a subtle threat. Followed by a lot of teasing, Gajeel knew Levy's mom was a doctor, but this was ridiculous. Gajeel didn't usually blush, but he had been red faced more times than he could count since he got there. "So you got a PHD in embarrassing mom or something? My mom doesn't even mess with me this bad." That made her laugh more, Gajeel was really missing Levy when her mom admitted that she was holding back. If this was holding back, Gajeel was going to die when she took the training wheels off.

* * *

"What do you mean he put you in time out? Mom what did you do?" Her mom made a fake offended face, and then stuck her lip out to pout much like Levy did when she didn't get her way. She knew her mom could get on the invasive side, being a doctor she didn't even flinched when it came to asking people personal questions, and she could only imagine what Gajeel had to go through.

"Levy sweetie, I didn't do a thing, your boyfriend was just so mean to me. He kicked me out of the kitchen, and told me to stay out of his hair." Her mom was giving her puppy dog eyes, the same ones she used when it was her turn to do the laundry, and she wanted Levy to do it instead. If that didn't work her mom would use the but I gave birth to you card. That worked on her every time, Levy always wanted to avoid the speech about what she did to her moms lady parts on the way out.

Levy was going to kick Gajeel's ass, that sounded like something Gajeel would say, but saying it to her mom was unforgivable Levy's mom thought it was funny, if Levy knew the whole story she wouldn't be stomping into the kitchen to tear Gajeel a new one. She was honestly really happy to see him, she wanted to hug him, and sneak a picture of him in her pink "Kiss the cook apron," but not if he was being rude to her mom. "Gajeel are you being mean to my mom?"

"Fuck no, I've been kissing her ass since I got here." Gajeel heard Levy's mom clear her throat and he yelled out a sorry for bad language once again. Gajeel finally got sick of her moms teasing, he was fine with the empty threats. But when she started playing with his hair and telling him how pretty he looked in a pair of pigtails he told her to go sit down and behave herself.

What the hell was it with women and his hair, Juvia liked braiding his hair, Levy liked brushing it. When the food was finally in the oven and Levy's mom asked him if she could play in his hair, he thought what's the worse that could happen. Matching ponytails on each side of his head was the farthest thing from his mind. But seeing his reflection in the window let him know he should have known better than to trust any woman with a brush.

"Gajeel why did you put my mom in time out?!" Her mom didn't seem to mind, Gajeel told her to go sit down and relax and behave herself until dinner was done. She planned on getting Levy out her room in a little while but she came down by herself. Levy seemed to be feeling a lot better because she was in the kitchen giving Gajeel a piece of her mind.

"She was being feisty, Now I know where you get it from." Levy couldn't wait to hear what her mom said to Gajeel, she was honestly surprised her mom didn't scare him off yet. From the moment Levy told her mom she had a boyfriend she had been asking her overly personal questions, and she just knew Gajeel must have just barely survived the same treatment. "If you don't calm your ass down and get out my kitchen you're going on the timeout couch too."

Levy puffed her cheeks out with her hands on her hips. Gajeel was being too bossy, and it didn't help she heard her mom laughing from the other room. "And who's gonna make me?" Gajeel smirked and raised his eyebrow, the shrimp should have known by now, she was tiny, and easily lifted.

"I warned you shrimp."

* * *

Super sorry I haven't been able to update more lately, it isn't from a lack of writing, I just haven't been near a computer. If it makes you guys feel better, I just finished chapter 30, its just a matter of me editing everything and getting it out. I should be updating again soon!

-Chesxca


	22. Chapter 22

Gajeel didn't remember falling asleep on Levy's couch, but the way his neck felt he was definitely regretting it. After dinner they all cuddled up on the couch and watched a movie together. Gajeel was rolling his eyes being stuck between two tiny women during a scary movie, they both jumped every time the movie was supposed to be scary, and he thought Levy' mom was going to cry. Gajeel couldn't really get comfortable with a woman clinging to each arm, and his beer went untouched because they both refused to let him go. Next time he was going to pick a fucking Disney movie, obviously both of them had over active imaginations from reading so much, they even had the nerve to make Gajeel walk around the house and make sure there were no monsters, while Levy and her mom hid on the couch.

Levy's mom bailed after the first movie, but Levy insisted on watching a comedy so she wouldn't have to go to sleep with monsters fresh on her mind, but seeing his shrimp asleep with her head on his lap, let him know they didn't make it to the end of the second movie. It was good to see both of them in good spirits all night, Gajeel made it a point not to mention Levy's father, he could tell Lana was in a pissy mood too when he showed up, after dinner Levy went upstairs for something so she didn't overhear her mom arguing with her dad on the other side of the phone. Gajeel didn't want that to ruin the mood, so when Lana finally came back into the living room Gajeel offered to be on his worst behavior when he picked Levy up for school on the Monday. "Dad's in general kind of already hate me, if you ask nicely I can be a pretty big shit head. You know just to piss him off as revenge for making you ladies so upset. I already won you over, so he can hate me all he wants to."

She laughed at that "I knew there was a reason I liked you. All you have to do is wear lots of black, use all the bad words you want, and give Levy a kiss right in front of him. He'll flip his shit, I'll let you be creative on anything you want to add to that, but be sure to pick Levy up on your bike, that'll be the icing on the my daughter's dating a bad boy cake. Even though you're a total mama's boy." Gajeel couldn't even deny that, he learned the hard way that moms were not meant to be crossed. Gajeel could be a total jackass to some people, but he did his best to behave around moms, he even let the perverted old ladies have a free pass for acting crazy all the time. He knew how terrifying his mother could be when he was being a shit head, he didn't want to deal with a gang of them.

A couple years ago his mom wanted to take cooking classes, Skiadrum flat out refused, and Rogue bailed the minute she said cooking, Gajeel volunteered just not to face her wrath, and he ended up liking it. Originally he thought cooking was girly, but he found out it was cutting up dead things and putting them on fire. Preteen Gajeel loved that logic,but even now not many people knew Gajeel could cook, but he did ninety percent of the cooking in his house. Levy and her mom were a special case, they both needed a pick me up, and his cooking usually cheered his mom up. And the amount of hugs he got after dinner let him know he did a good job.

* * *

The fact it was almost five in the morning made him groan, he really didn't want to get up and walk home. Rogue had his car yesterday, and a suit and his bike didn't mix so he ended up walking here yesterday. Sleeping on this couch was out of the question, it just wasn't that comfortable, not to mention he was way too tall for it. He didn't want to wake Levy up but she needed to go to bed too, she was small enough to fit on the couch, but he didn't see a point when she had a perfectly good bed upstairs, she was still in the dress she picked out for dinner, but now it was hiked up around her waist and if it wasn't for the blanket over her he would have saw her panties. Damn blanket.

"Look who's finally up." Levy's mom actually looked like an adult dressed in a pair of scrubs. Her hair was pulled back in a neat bun instead of the messy one she was rocking yesterday. The pink batman cup she was sipping coffee out of threw off the whole looking like an adult thing, but she still looked a lot more grown up now than she did when she was chasing Levy around the house trying to swear icing on her face last night. "You two are so cute when you're sleeping. I'm going to have the most beautiful grand babies." Gajeel made an annoyed face, he was too damn old for somebody to re ruffling his already bad case of bed head. But he knew if he said anything about it, Levy's mom would just do it more. It seemed like a trend with them, every time he told Levy specifically not to do something, she did it every time he let his guard down. "But no kids soon, I'm too young to be a grandma."

Gajeel ignored her every time she talked about kids, there was no right way to respond to it, and he knew she was just trying to trap him and then tease him when he said something embarrassing. "You need a better couch, and a kid that drools less." He could already feel the wet spot in his leg, he was definitely going to have to get his suit dry cleaned, even after wearing an overly girly apron and trying his best to stay clean. Levy was clumsy as shit, and Lana decided to have an impromptu food fight last night, so he was sure he was going to trying to get icing out of his ass crack later. He should have just stayed in jeans like he wanted to, but Juvia told him he better look nice if he wanted to make a good impression. He was glad he did dress up, even though they ended up staying home, both Levy and Lana were dressed up and he would have been the odd one out.

Gajeel went to shake his sleeping shrimp, his ass fell asleep and he needed to get off it like now. "I don't drool." Levy cracked an eye open and sat up trying to wipe her drool stain off his pants, too bad that meant she was rubbing his crotch right in front of her mom, and that only ended well in weird storylines in porn. Gajeel put on his best poker face and jumped up to finally stretch his aching bones, and stopped Levy's wandering hands in the process. Sitting up and sleeping really did a number on him and he couldn't wait to get in his own bed.

"You kids be good, Gajeel don't make me kill you. Levy don't make me kill Gajeel. I like him." Lana finally left after kissing Levy good bye and hugging Gajeel and slipping in a threat about what would happen if he didn't heed her warning about keeping it in his pants. Gajeel planned on just going home, his bed was calling him, but he couldn't really say no to Levy when she asked him to stay. She gave him the look all girls did when they wanted something, and it was so much more effective when they came from her big pretty doll eyes. He always slept better with his arms wrapped around his shrimp anyway.

* * *

"My rooms kind of messy, it's mostly books, but it won't take me long to move them around." Gajeel could only imagine, their fingers were laced together, so he could tell that she was nervous, he didn't know why. They always cuddled in his bed together, they were always alone besides Lily and sometimes Frosch. Or rogue would decide to be extra annoying that day and make an appearance. Rogue knew better than to let Sting into his room, that kid was just as destructive as Natsu and that was saying a lot. Gajeel shouldn't have been surprised by the amount of books in Levy's room. She always had at least one book with her, and unless it was a textbook from school it was never the same one. One side of her bed was filled with open books the other side just had a very familiar looking doll on it.

"Please tell me this thing is not supposed to be me." Gajeel rolled his eyes, he knew this handiwork anywhere. He was gonna have to call Juvia and talk to her about not making creepy ass dolls of him. Her room was really girly, she had other dolls, but most of them were pokemon and they were sitting on the window seat in her room. Her book shelves were full, and he remembered her mentioning that their guest room was filled with books too. He tossed it to the end of her bed, just so he wasn't tempted to do something to it that would piss both Levy and Juvia off, there was something about girls with blue hair and having tempers, and he wasn't going to deal with two angry ones at a time.

Gajeel left his jacket downstairs, he was hoping at least one part of his suit was clean, he hug it up in the hall when he started cooking, but the rest of him was pretty messy. He unbuttoned his shirt, he had a tank top on underneath his button up, he knew how Levy reacted around him when he was shirtless and he was really temped to take it off just to see her get flustered. He debated on taking his pants off, he had a feeling Lana might run out of the closet with a knife if he did, but there was no way in hell he could sleep comfortably in them, so he just hoped Levy wouldn't freak out about it. She's seen him in his boxers before, she's never said anything about it, but she did have a pretty noticeable blush on her cheeks. "He's cute. And he keeps me company when I'm lonely." Levy hugged the doll to her chest, and that just made Gajeel more annoyed, he snatched the mini version of himself and threw it across the room.

"I won't burn the doll, if you don't hug it in front of me, I don't want to think about somebody else getting all my love, even if its me." Levy laughed when he said that, he acted the same way when she was cuddling Lily, Gajeel would mutter something about the damn cat stealing his thunder and then find some reason to tease Levy enough to make her wrestle with him. It wasn't until Levy's dress hit the floor did she remember she wasn't alone in her room, maybe it was the lack of sleep or that she was so used to just changing when and where she felt liked she completely spaced on the fact Gajeel was laying in her bed right now. She turned her head in slow motion, maybe he wasn't looking. She made eye contact with Gajeel who had an eye brow raised. "Don't stop on my account."

Levy crossed her arms over her chest, she was painfully aware that she wasn't wearing a bra, and that she decided against full bottom panties today. She was definitely sending Gajeel the wrong message right now, yeah Levy invite him to your bed, and then stand in front of him in just a thong, good plan. "Gajeel don't look!" He covered his eyes but if he was anything like her he was peeking through his fingers, and she made a bee line for the bathroom with her pajamas in her arms. She finally came out in a pair of shorts, and a shirt she stole from him a while ago, she knew by the look on his face that he recognized it, it was the same one he had been asking about the past couple of weeks, and Levy kept telling him she didn't know.

"Nice shirt Shrimp." Levy laughed and told him she knows, she looked cute in his shirt, it came down to her mid thigh and hid the pajama shorts she had on underneath. "I think it looks better on you anyway, so I'm gonna let it slide." It was getting harder to fight sleep, so he just pulled her into his arms, Levy's bed was a lot smaller than his, so he stole the middle of the bed and pulled her on top of him. Gajeel was disappointed he only got a short kiss, but he knew their piercings were still pretty new so Levy was being careful. He knew by the way they were laying he was going to end up with drool in his hair, but he didn't care as long as he had a happy Shrimp to wake up to.


	23. Chapter 23

**Slight lime warning!**

I'm hoping to have the next chapter up sometime tomorrow. I'm finally near a computer so I can update faster again. TvT

* * *

Levy was happy to wake up to warm cuddles, Gajeel was still asleep behind her and had his arm wrapped around her waist. She knew by the sun peeking in through her curtains it had to be around noon, but she didn't feel like leaving her bed today for any reason. She thought about trying to inch over to the side of the bed, she knew she had a few books on the floor, and waking Gajeel up like waking a bear. Sure he was a cuddly one but he would usually just put her in a tighter vice grip of a hug and tell her to go back to sleep.

Recently he switched from mornings to midnights at work so he could go back to school full time, which meant there were a lot of naps when he got home. A lot of the times when they hung out they didn't even have to do anything, they would just enjoy each other's company, and be glad just to be alone together for a little while. She would get engrossed in a good book and end up falling asleep on his couch, and she would wake up in his arms. It was definitely one of the best feelings in the world, sometimes she would wake up to him playing in her hair, or he would be stroking her cheek. He would be staring at her like she was a treasure, when he realized he was caught he would stop and pretend like he wasn't doing it so she would pretend to be asleep a little bit longer. She would always get busted because eventually she couldn't hide her smile, and a couple of times she just couldn't resist kissing him. He would just call her a sneaky shrimp and pretend like nothing happened.

One thing she thought she never thought she would get used to was the way a certain part of Gajeel's anatomy always seemed to be pushed up against her. It was an elephant in the room for a long time, she wouldn't say anything about it, she would just try to inch away slowly. Other times she would be curious and if she thought he was sleeping she would rub up against it just to see if it would feel different. Sometimes Gajeel would just get up to go pee and when he came back she wouldn't feel it anymore. A few times it would be bothering her and she would tell him to go pee and he would say he didn't have to.

She still couldn't tell the difference between it being hard because he had to pee, or it being like that for other reasons. Right now all she could think about was the fact it was giving her a wedgie out of this world and she couldn't exactly reach back to pull it out without touching Gajeel in the process. She had been suffering for a little while, and she even tried to push him back a little bit with her butt, he was only in his underwear so she could really feel it. But she was past the point of being embarrassed, she really wanted to remove her shorts from up her butt. She tried scooting away a little bit, just enough so she could fix her clothes.

But Gajeel had a good grip on her, and their legs were laced together so she wasn't going anywhere. The more she squirmed, the more prominent things became, and somehow the terrible wedgie she already had was becoming worse. About an hour ago she felt Gajeel get up and go to her bathroom, it's what originally woke her up, she was pretty sure the morning wood was there before but it wasn't that bad. The longer she had been up, the worse it had become and she was pretty sure he didn't have to pee again that fast, this was a recreational boner, which meant he was probably awake. "Gajeel! Your stupid dicks giving me a wedgie! Move it." She heard him groan, and he moved closer to her making things worse. "Not farther up my ass."

He laughed and finally moved, giving her shorts a tug in the process. She was glad to finally be wedgie free but she was wondering just how long had she suffered because he was pretending to be asleep. "What'd my dick ever do to you? I was comfortable." She made an annoyed sound, she knew Gajeel wouldn't do anything too perverted. He made her promise him that if he ever did anything that made her uncomfortable she would tell him right away. He said it in a very Gajeel like manner telling her that he wasn't a mind reader and she had to let him know when he was fucking up. She loved that he was patient with her, a lot of times when they were kissing his hands would wander, but he would take his time and ask her if she was okay with it before he did something different.

She didn't mind when his hands wandered over her clothes, but he had gotten under her shirt a few times before she stopped him. It wasn't because she didn't like what he was doing, it was mostly because she was embarrassed by the way she reacted and she was self conscious about her chest in the first place. She was pretty comfortable with the way his hands were always on her hips and thighs, he admitted that he really liked her butt, so she was never surprised when he found a reason to have his hands there. He had this really bad habit of lifting her skirt, she would pull it back down and tell him to knock it off, but it really pissed her off when he did it in public.

* * *

As if on cue he pulled her closer to him, she could feel him pushed up against her butt again but this time it wasn't to the point it was giving her a wedgie. His hand started to rub up and down her thigh, and she couldn't deny she liked it when he touched her. " I really like these shorts." Of course he did, they were sleep shorts that she would never wear outside of the house, she was pretty sure her butt was hanging out of them a little bit, and she wasn't wearing underwear so when his hand ran over her ass there was only one thin layer between their skin. She wanted to say something when his hands ventured upward towards her chest, she wasn't wearing a bra and she knew even through the shirt he could feel everything. His lips on her neck was making her thoughts cloudy and all she could thing to say was. "Don't leave a hickey on my neck."

If she was thinking a little more clearly she would have thought of a better answer when he asked her if he could leave one somewhere else. "As long as I can hide it." Seemed like an innocent response, but Gajeel definitely had mischief on his mind. She was suddenly under him, lacing his fingers through hers and pulling her hands over her head. His lips finally found hers, the way he kissed her made her forget about the piece of metal she had through her tongue until his bumped into hers and he pulled back with a sigh. The swelling had went down for the most part but they still hadn't been back to the shop to change to shorter bars so kissing was still kind of out of the question.

She wanted to scold him when he was kissing on her neck again, she really didn't want to go to her first day of school with a giant red mark on her neck, that was one way of telling everyone she was taken, but it would be almost impossible hiding it in her school uniform. But after a minute he switched to nibbling on her collar bone. The shirt only allowed him to kiss the top of her chest, he pushed her shirt up revealing her stomach, his hands ran over her chest through the shirt as he left kisses on her stomach and sides making her giggle. Running his teeth over her hip bones made her jump and she was glad Gajeel already knew what was fair game and what was still off limits. She was a little bit nervous when he started laying kisses on the inside of her knees, the farther up his kisses reached the more sensitive she was. It wasn't until he started nibbling on the inside of one of her thighs did she realize just how sensitive she was. Gajeel was too busy enjoying himself to notice the way she was gripping the sheets, or the way she had her head was laid back. It wasn't until he heard a sharp intake of breathe and her back arch off the bed did he realize just how much she was enjoying his treatment. "Did you just-?

* * *

"Shrimp knock it off, there's no reason to be that embarrassed about it." It was really hard convincing Levy that what she did was completely normal when he couldn't stop laughing. He knew she mortified, he didn't do it on purpose, but it happening did stroke his pride as a man. He knew he shouldn't have said anything about it, he watched her face go from blissful to bright red to horrified in a two second span, now she was hiding her face in her pillow and she refused to talk to him without it. It was really hard understanding her mumbled words, but at least she wasn't like crying or anything he wouldn't be able to handle that. "If you don't come out I'm gonna tickle you."

That final got her attention, Gajeel didn't hold back when it came to tickling and she really didn't need a headache from laughing on top of being embarrassed. As soon as she released her death grip on the pillow Gajeel stole it and threw it across the room. "See that's not so bad now is it." Levy was waiting for the relentless teasing, she was a total pervert and she usually got away with it without him noticing. This wasn't the first time she got overly excited when they were messing around. Usually she could just play it off, and stop things before they got to that point. But this time it caught her off guard and there was no playing off the moan that escaped her lips before she decided to hide from him. "I mean I didn't think I was that good."

She groaned before hiding her face in her hands, Gajeel was enjoying this too much. "Stop thinking about it!" She knew he was just teasing her because she was over reacting. He tried reassuring her that she just got worked up and it happens. She knew she would probably laugh about it later, but right now she just didn't want to think about it. She wanted to cuddle and go back to sleep, she laid her head on his chest hoping that he would finally drop the whole thing, but she could just feel him smirking at her. "You're still thinking about it aren't you?" All she got was a laugh in return.


	24. Chapter 24

**Bad news!**

**I am so super late on this chapter, I know I suck. The computer I was working off of died, and took all my work with it, so this past week I have had so much fun trying to rewrite ten chapters! And by fun I mean I've been ugly crying, it was pretty hard trying to do it by memory so I had to work backwards and fill in the blanks from there. I honestly just wanted to do a time skip, but you guys would have missed out on all the fun parts. I already know I changed a lot of things, but I'm hoping they are for the better!**

**Good News!**

**I caved and finally bought a new computer! And I will be backing up everything this time, so no more starting from scratch! And working off of a computer is way easier than using my phone all the time. But I will still be using both. **

**Story News!**

**Levy's dad finally makes an appearance! We can decide how we feel about him together, especially after he gets to meet Gajeel in the next chapter. I tried being lazy and squeezing it all into one, but it turned into like a 7000 word chapter and there's no way I could have edited that in a sitting, and I've had enough ugly crying this week.**

* * *

Kin would have stayed in bed if he knew was going to wake up to being slapped in the face. It wasn't a physical one, he would have preferred that, instead he got to learn the hard way his little princess was growing up. Sometime in the three months he was gone Levy had turned into an adult, sure she was still loved to have her nose in a book, with a far off look in her eyes and a sweet smile on her face. Being away as much as he was meant he missed a lot of things, he always regretted it, its like every time he came home he had to get to know his daughter all over again, some things were exciting, others were surprising But seeing her intimately sitting on the lap of someone he could only describe as a grown ass man hit him like a ton of bricks. He knew she probably wouldn't be doing it in front of him, he was still under the delusion that Levy was a little girl. Watching her cuddled up in some guys lap was something he wouldn't have believed if he wasn't seeing it himself.

He took the red eye home ended up staying the rest of the night in a hotel. He stuck around until check out so he could avoid both of his girls until he had some time to do damage control. He hadn't purposely missed Levy's birthday dinner, he knew how important it was supposed to be to her, but sometimes when work said jump he had to say how high. Honestly he got held over for a stupid reason, his higher ups were throwing a party and he had to attend, he tried sneaking off a few times but they kept pulling him back for another drink. After his fifth failed escape plan he didn't have enough time to make his flight so he had to tell Levy the bad news. He knew she was pissed, she didn't reply to any of his texts after that, and Lana called him an hour later reminded him just how shitty he actually was. He knew it was going to be way worse in person, the minute his wife stopped being excited that he was home, she was going to start being mad. Levy's cold shoulder was bad enough, Lana's creative fury was far worse.

He snuck in the back around one, he had to hail a cab home because Lana was most likely at work, and if she was as mad as he thought she was she would have left his ass at the airport anyway. Levy's door was shut, but he still didn't know if she was home, he knew better than to just barge in her room unannounced. He remembered coming home around her thirteenth birthday and after being yelled at by Levy, Lana had to explain to him why he wasn't allowed in her room without asking anymore. He knew puberty for girls was different than boys, but he didn't know why Levy growing boobs meant she was going to be so angry all the time. Lana had to explain to him that puberty for boys was just popping a boner every time the wind blows, puberty for girls was brutal. He remembered her calling him from school crying and that was the day he became an expert in feminine hygiene products, he swallowed his pride and had to ask the cashier what worked well for a teenage girl, there were still way too many choices so he walked out with one box of everything and a carton of ice cream.

He could have knocked on her door, but he didn't want to see her and be empty handed, sometimes she seemed happy with the gifts, other times she still thanked him, but she looked like she could care less. He didn't really know what to do, but this is how he tried. He ended up tiptoeing around the house just in case. Kin tried to figure out what he was going to do, but he was coming up blank, he was just too anxious, he knew he would most likely end up on the couch if he didn't try to fix things. He decided to at least clean up after himself so Lana would have one less thing to yell at him for. He learned the hard way that she did not want to come home after working all day and trip over all of his luggage. He started with his uniforms, he wasn't going to get them dry cleaned until he had to leave again so they were just going to collect dust in the guest room that was across from Levy's like they usually did.

Kin could hear giggles coming from behind her door, so now he knew she was both here and awake, he decided to lay low until he could sneak off somewhere and get her something special for a late birthday present. The first place he always looked for inspiration was Levy's Amazon wish list, it helped him avoid the awkward, "So what do you want for your birthday?" question. Lana was easier, her tastes hadn't really changed since he met her, Levy's one constant was that she liked books, a couple years ago she decided she liked headbands, and he always sent her a ton whenever he was traveling. Her wish list filled in all the other blanks, how was he supposed to know what an eighteen year old girl liked? He still couldn't believe she was eighteen, the same age he was when he met her mother for the first time it was bittersweet.

After a much needed nap he decided to sneak off and do some shopping before his wife came home. Levy's door was open and she wasn't in her room, so sneaking out would be a lot easier than he thought. He was used to walking quietly, Lana constantly got mad because he was unintentionally sneaking up on her. Being in the military for as long as he was taught him to walk a certain way and he couldn't just turn it off. So when he came down the steps he noticed the couple in the living room before they noticed him.

* * *

"Shorty, I need to go home sometime today, preferably before your mom gets back and starts threatening very important parts of me." Levy giggled, but she didn't budge, she just laid her head on his chest and tried to find a more comfortable reading position. Gajeel understood why she was being so clingy today, once school started they wouldn't be able to hang out as much as usual, spending the whole day together was always nice, but it would probably be a long time until they could do it again. Last night wasn't their first sleep over, it was just the first time he stayed at her house, the last time she stayed over at his house it wasn't on purpose, and it definitely was not romantic. Juvia came over crying and he didn't know how to handle it. She got into a fight with Gray over something stupid, and all Gajeel could do is offer to punch him in the face.

He called Levy begging her to come help, and he didn't even feel bad when she was the one getting cried on. Levy was a way better friend than he was, she held Juvia until she fell asleep. And then Levy was stuck in teddy bear mode, she gave up after a little bit and went to sleep too. It was cute and all seeing them cuddled up and what not until he realized they were taking up his whole bed. He ended up trying not to fall off his bed the whole night, Juvia and Levy were both tiny women but they took up all the room. Levy was a trooper for being stuck between him and Juvia all night, he was sure there was a shrimp tug of war. When he woke up the next morning, he was hugging Levy from behind like he usually did, but Juvia was hugging her from the front, he didn't know why Gray being an idiot meant he had to share his girlfriend. Of course in the chaos of the night Gajeel forgot to lock his door, so Rogue woke everyone up asking Gajeel how the hell he managed to get two girlfriends.

He thought it was funny how fast Juvia got over her hurt feelings towards Gray, to preaching about him being her only love. The next day Gajeel had to explain to his brother that having two women in your bed isn't all that its cracked up to be. He was pretty sure if he popped a boner or something like that, they would have both kicked his ass for being a pervert, but Juvia was like his sister so he couldn't get a boner within a ten mile radius of her. One time Juvia got really drunk and thought he was Gray and she tried to kiss him, the whole thing was really awkward. The minute he told her he was Gajeel she ran off looking for Gray, she ended up running into Natsu first and Natsu looked just as annoyed as he was to mistaken for Gray. He didn't even want to tease her about it, it was something him and Natsu agreed not to talk about, they spent half the night keeping Juvia away from non Gray people.

* * *

Levy would be going to high school with her friends in the morning, and doing her online college classes for the rest of the day. She did the same thing last year but she ended up spending most of her time in the schools library so she could still have lunch with Lucy when the time came. This years she was going to alternate days spending some time at the high school and spending some days studying with had a few classes she actually had to go to campus for, and she was lucky that some of them were with Gajeel and she called dibs on him being her partner all semester long.

Gajeel was going to be getting off work in time to take Levy to school in the morning, he already took Rogue most of the time because the kid was too lazy to walk, and Levy's house was on his way home from work anyway. If he didn't feel like taking them to school, he could always pick Levy up and make Rogue take them. The kid just got his license and was always eager to drive . He was secretly glad the two of them got along, that way Rogue could look out for Levy when he wasn't there and Levy could make sure Rogue didn't do anything too stupid. Sure sometimes his brother could be a real idiot on his own, but being around Natsu, Gray and Sting made things way worse.

After some bribing he was able to convince Rogue to drop him off a change of clothes, there was no way in hell he was putting that suit back on and he couldn't exactly walk home in his underwear. Gajeel smelled like girl from using Levy's shower, everything in there was either flowery or smelled like candy, and he had to pick his poison and ended up smelling like vanilla. She probably would have killed him if she knew he spent half of his shower time rubbing one out, but he used his hair as an excuse for the length of his shower. To his unpleasant surprise, his missing bottle of shampoo was in her bathroom. Great he was going to have to watch her too, he spent an hour searching through Rogues room when it disappeared, he never expected his Shrimp to betray him like that.

Levy just laughed nervously and ran for it once he brought it up, she completely forgot about it being in there, maybe if she would have took the first shower she would have noticed and hid it better. Being chased around her room by a towel clad Gajeel made her more excited than she wanted to admit, she was kind of really hoping his towel fell. She had already seen most of Gajeel, and she wouldn't mind accidentally seeing the rest of him, he finally caught her being pinned down by a mostly naked Gajeel definitely raised the temperature in the room. Nothing beat the face she made when he told her he got all sweaty and asked her if she wanted to save water and take a shower together. Sometimes he would just say things to gauge her reaction. A couple times he said things jokingly just to make her squirm, and he would be pleasantly surprised when she agreed. But by how red her face got just at them seeing each other naked, let him know he might have better luck next time. One day she was going to stop being so shy and her curiosity was going to get the best of her, until then he was going to keep teasing her about it.

* * *

Gajeel was sitting in the recliner in the living room trying to watch TV while Levy was sitting across his lap reading. She was cuddled up against his chest, and he couldn't help but to run his hands up her skirt. Something he used to be scolded for, but the more time they spent together the more comfortable she was with him. He had a hard time admitting it to himself but he was pretty sure he was already in love with her. He tried to discreetly ask Juvia what it was like to be in love with someone. Between all of her swooning about Gray, she pretty much hit the nail on the head with what he called symptoms. It all started in that closet, originally he told himself he was only getting to know her because they were stuck together and there was nothing else to do. Then he told himself he was only thinking about her because she was pretending not to like him. But spending almost a month at his dads let him know something was wrong with him.

He spent the whole time thinking about her, and discreetly asked some of his friends what they knew about her. He was so desperate to figure out what was going on with him he even asked his thirteen year old sister for advice. Wendy told him it must be love at first sight, and if it was meant to be they would find each other again, but he just brushed it off as pre-teen ignorance. The fact he ran into her not even a week after he got home had to be a coincidence. Running into a bookworm at a library wasn't that strange, him asking that same bookworm on a date was. This dating thing was still really weird to him, the fact he got nervous around her. He was so done with being in denial, last night was proof of how much he really cared, he worked his ass off of to cheer her up, if it was anyone else he would have just told them to suck it up and he would have went along with his business.

Okay so he knew it, he was in love, now what was he supposed to do with this information? It took him long enough to figure it out If he was going to tell her or not was a whole different story, weren't girls the ones who were supposed to fall in love way too soon and confess in some cute but embarrassing way? There was no way he was gonna be the one doing it, it was bad enough he ended up stumbling over his words to ask her to be his girlfriend. He wasn't about to add a botched love confession to his track record. "You should just stay here." She put her face into his chest hoping he would drop it and stay a little bit longer.

If Levy had her way he wasn't leaving anytime soon, but sometimes she forgot just how easily she was lifted. "Alright shrimp, looks like your going home with me."

* * *

It was hard watching his daughter picked up bridal style, it felt like last week he was picking her up at the end of the day to tuck her in for bed. He recognized the loving look she was giving her boyfriend, it was the same way Lana looked at him. He knew it was going to come one day, but he really wasn't ready to see it in person. When he heard that Levy started dating, he only thought about her holding hands with some scrawny guy who was probably still afraid of girls. Not watching her lock lips with a grown man that could probably bench press her.

He heard the front door shut and he was glad they were finally gone. He didn't exactly want to meet his daughters boyfriend while he was tip toeing around his house and caught spying on them. But at the same time he was worried about them going to do who knows what at his house, and he was praying there was adult supervision. Yeah right adult supervision for his eighteen year old daughter and her boyfriend that had to be in his twenties. He wanted to call Lana and get the run down on this new man in Levy's life, but he figured it could wait. He stopped in his tracks when he thought back to him coming home earlier, the giggles coming from her room suddenly seemed so much more suspicious. He wanted to cry, he just prayed that history didn't repeat itself. That his Levy didn't come home heartbroken with a baby. He decided to talk about it with his wife later, right now he needed to pull together a surprise or two so he could actually sleep in his bed tonight and not the couch. Sometimes when he managed to piss them both off, they would lock themselves in Levy's room and give him the cold shoulder a day or two before they finally caved. He knew he was on the top of both of his girls shit lists and it was going to be hard coming back from his last mistake.


	25. Chapter 25

I ended up splitting this chapter into two, but I'm posting both together. This was completely done on my phone so I haven't really been able to edit it, so sorry for any mistakes!

* * *

Kin was starting to feel lonely, he knew his girls couldn't just drop everything the minute he came home, but he was really excited to give them the presents he bought them. He knew he was still on their shit list, he missed Levy's birthday by almost a week but he missed her dinner by a day. He knew Levy would probably mope around for a few days before she turned into the full blown daddy's girl that she is. He was only home for about six weeks at a time, so they usually just put aside hurt feelings and enjoyed their time together. But it was going to take Lana all of five seconds of seeing him before she got all excited and told him about everything he missed. Her anger always snuck up on him, she would be all loving and sweet for about the first week, then she would roll out all the reasons she was pissed at him. Speak of the devil he heard the front door open, and he looked up to see what treatment he was about to get. Blue meant tears, guilt and teenage angst, blonde meant tears and excitement.

Nothing made his day brighter than the smile he got as soon as she walked in the door. He always told her she had a smile that lit up the room, and she passed it on to their daughter. Lana was as beautiful as the day he met her, he didn't think love at first sight was a thing, but with her bright blonde hair and hazel eyes he fell in love all over again. He laughed when she tried to drop her smile into a pout but just threw herself into his arms instead. "You're never allowed to leave again. Okay?" They went through this every time, he would come home on leave and his girls would beg him to stay but he always had to come back. At least he was retiring this year, then he would never have to leave his girls again.

"Soon. I promise. Then we can spend everyday together." He knew she had to be tired, she worked all day and he could feel her relax in his arms. He didn't even have to ask, he just picked her up and carried her to their room, she needed at least some sort of nap before dinner and by the way she was holding on to him it seemed like he would be taking one too. He didn't even want to know what her scrubs were covered in, her being a doctor meant that bodily fluids didn't phase her. But he was praying he could at least convince her to shower before she went to bed. "You must have had a long day, how about a bubble bath and a foot rub?" Kin was speaking her language, she told herself she was going to rip him a new one for yesterday. But that could wait until after she was spoiled rotten, and broke the news to him. She wanted to tell him as soon as she found out, but telling him in person is completely worth the wait.

* * *

"I have a surprise for you." Lana sang it playfully. She talked to Levy on her way home and she was staying out late, so she was just going to have to wait to tell her the news. She was going to sit them down and break the news together, but she was just too giddy to keep it a secret any longer. "It's on the dresser, if you want to find out." It had been a long three months so he really didn't want to let go of his wife even if it was for a minute, but curiosity got the better of him and he found the little box on the dresser she was referring to.

When he opened it he thought he was going to faint. His worse nightmare had really come true, and the ultrasound picture hand was proof. "Levy's pregnant?" She was still in high school! He failed as a parent, he wasn't ready to be a grandpa! All these things were going through his head, and he was wondering why Lana was so happy about this.

He turned to his wife to ask her how the hell did they let this happen. As hard as it was for them raising Levy as young parents, they didn't want the same thing for her. But Lana was looking at him like he was stupid. As much as Lana loved her husband, he liked to constantly remind her that she married an idiot.

* * *

"Levy was nervous and excited at the same time, finding out her mom was having another baby made her happy. Her mom talked about it for years, and she loved kids. Lana was always super welcoming to all of Levy's friends, she even accept Gajeel with open arms after meeting him, and he could really rub people the wrong way. When Levy was younger she begged for a brother or sister, but it never happened. Once she hit her teen years she gave up on the idea, being an only child could get pretty lonely, but she wasn't sure having a sibling that much younger than her would really count. She knew her parents waited so long because she didn't want Levy to turn into a full time babysitter, neither one of her parents wanted to give up their careers, and Levy wouldn't have been able to dedicate so much time to her education, if she had a baby to run after. But now she was grown, she was graduating high school this year, with her Bachelors degree, and was already accepted into the school of her dreams to work on her Masters.

School hadn't even started and she was already stressed out, juggling two schools was going to be hard enough, but having a baby in the house was going to make things pretty hectic. She couldn't help but be worried about the whole thing, and on top of that she couldn't help but feel like she was being replaced. Her dad already had plans to retire from the military this year, but she was the one leaving this time, she still had things to plan out when the time came, but she knew she would be lucky to make it home for weekends. A lot of her friends who went away for college only came around during holidays, and breaks. Levy was growing up and was just now trying to find her way out of the nest and spread her wings, and her parents were already having a do over baby.

* * *

Her dad was home, and Levy was still pretty pissed at him, but she faked a smile and hugged him when he gave her a late birthday present. Sure the necklace was pretty and all, but he must have forgot that he promised her a car for her eighteenth birthday. She wasn't going to remind him though, he promised her the same thing for birthdays sixteen and seventeen so she knew not to get her hopes up on that. She was cuddled up in her bed with her mom, her hand was on her moms belly hoping to feel something from her new little brother or sister to be, even if her mom was only about three months along, she was trying to at least bond with the baby so she would feel better about the whole thing. "Kisses for your thoughts?" Lana kissed her daughters forehead, she could tell she was deep in thought and was hoping she help her with whatever was bothering her at the moment.

Levy thought hard about what she was going to say, the whole truth would have made her look like a jealous little kid, and saying that it was nothing would have just made her mom pry. She settled on a half truth, she didn't want to make everything about herself, Levy knew the feeling would pass when she shock wore off, and she didn't want to upset her mom over nothing. Telling her mom she was concerned about the baby would make her feel better. "You and dad are great, I wouldn't be me without you guys. But I just don't want the baby to be lonely growing up... " She knew saying that would probably hurt her moms feelings, but she never spoke up for herself about the way she felt growing up, but maybe saying something would help her sibling to be. "I'm supposed to go away to college, dads always gone, and you work a lot. I know they won't know better for a couple years, but it sucked..." Lana knew it was tough on Levy, growing up the way she did, but she never actually heard it come out of her mouth. "I used to read so much because I always felt like I was by myself. But I don't want the baby to be lonely too."

"I know we aren't the best parents in the world. Your dad sucks at it more than I do though." Lana was still pretty mad at Kin so she didn't mind throwing him under the bus if it made Levy laugh. "But we obviously did something right, we did good with you, and you are just so perfect. But I can just hope we learned from are mistakes and we'll do a better job this time around. Plus the baby is going to have you to fill in the gaps where me and your dad are missing things. When I was your age I already had you, and I didn't really know better about a lot of things at the time. I tried really hard to hold on to being a kid, but it was selfish when I had a kid of my own. I regret not being there every minute with you, and all the things I missed, but I wouldn't change it if it meant I didn't have this Levy that's right here with me right now."

Lana loved having little talks with Levy, sometimes it was really hard getting into her head, and when she actually opened up she was straight to the point. But being the fun loving person she was, she had to break the moment before one of them started crying. If one of them started the other one would have followed suit, they both got sympathy tears, Lana had a better handle on it because she couldn't just break down at work, but sometimes she just had to take a break and pull herself together, most of the time she would either try to make the person feel better by making them laugh or changing the subject. Lana knew just how to distract Levy from all the shitty things she was feeling, the best way she knew to get Levy to think about something else was either to mention a book, or by teasing her. She wrapped her arms around Levy so she couldn't run, there was nothing like busting your kid when they were off guard. "So... How was your sleepover with Gajeel?"She watched Levy's face turn bright red, and she knew she was right.

"Wait how did you know?"

" I didn't until now." Levy couldn't believe she fell for the oldest trick in the book. Her mom didn't exactly stick around to make sure he left, and it's not like Levy was hiding it.

"It was okay... He was pretty convinced you were going to come out of the closet wielding a knife." Lana laughed, Gajeel was right to fear her. She was five feet and two inches of fury when she wanted to be.

"Not as long as he's doesn't give me a reason to."


	26. Chapter 26

Kin should have known all good things come to an end, Saturday he found out he was going to be a father again, they had been talking about it for years, but they hadn't actually been trying but to find out that it was actually happening made him happier than he could even describe. Sunday he spent the day celebrating with his two favorite girls, everything seemed to be perfect, he had time off work, a happy wife, a healthy baby, and his little princess hadn't given him the cold shoulder he was expecting. Usually she would lock herself in her room for a few days, or just ignore him by putting her nose in a book and pretending she wasn't mad. She still seemed a little bit upset, but she would talk to him about it when she was ready, but right now they were too busy catching up to deal with it at the moment. She knew he didn't do it on purpose, but he knew it didn't really make things better.

There was no mention of the boyfriend he still yet to meet, he didn't show up yesterday and neither girl mentioned him, so Kin wasn't going to ruin his mood if he didn't have to. Levy came home around eleven Saturday night, and he really did not want to think about what she was doing all that time. He didn't know much about this boyfriend of hers, but as her father she was naturally suspicious. Kin knew what he was like when he was around that age, and he didn't want Levy to get her heart broken. He was pretty surprised she never dated one of the guys she was already hanging around, he knew Jet was going places, he just got an athletic scholarship to the university and had been head over heels for Levy since he was ten. Droy was a good kid too, he was going away to Culinary school, the kid had a thing for plants and he loved food even more. He always talked about growing his own food so everything would be fresh for his recopies and he was going to make the perfect dish to make Levy fall in love with him.

Kin remembered Droy asking him for Levy's hand in marriage when he was about twelve, Lana thought it was cute but Kin was just annoyed by the question, not even a minute later Jet started arguing with him about stealing his idea. Kin didn't care who thought of it first, there was no way in hell he was giving either one of them permission to marry his then eleven year old daughter. He thought they would eventually get over their crush on her, but apparently they were both pretty heart broken about Levy's new love life. Maybe if the boys were a couple years older he would grab a beer with them, Kin was pretty heartbroken about it too.

* * *

After a wonderful weekend, Kin should have known that Monday was the day the shit was going to hit the fan, he woke up alone. Lana was up early and he was hoping it wasn't because she wasn't feeling well. When he walked past his window he saw something out the corner of his eye that instantly gave him a headache. Who the hell did he know who rides a motorcycle? Nobody around here, sure a lot of guys he knew from base did, but he wasn't expecting any visitors, so he was just hoping it was parked at the wrong house. Plus it was seven in the morning, riding a bike around this early in the morning was the same thing as mowing your lawn first thing, it was a newer model so it had to be quiet, if it wasn't Kin would have woke up the minute it pulled onto his block.

Kin figured he had company, so he decided to get dressed before looking for Lana. It was Levy's first day of school, so he was hoping Lana wasn't working too hard to trying to get everything ready for Levy, and he was really hoping Lana wasn't attempting to cook. He loved his wife, but her pancakes just weren't edible, and he didn't want to suffer through a batch of those. She was up too early and he was hoping she wasn't working too hard. She thought she was superwoman and still do everything she usually did while pregnant she wasn't showing yet but she still needed to take it easy. He still remembered her being pregnant the first time with Levy, it made her overly motherly, but she was also very forgetful when it came to cooking, and one time she literally burned water. All the water boiled out of her pan, and it came out disclosed, he still couldn't mention it without it making her upset. He could smell good coming from the kitchen, and he was surprised it didn't smell like he needed to call the fire department. That meant Lana wasn't cooking, but somebody was. "If your brats not down soon, I'm gonna bring her down over my shoulder."

He heard Lana giggle, why the hell was Levy's boyfriend over first thing in the morning. Kin knew he was going to be ansty when he came face to face with her boyfriend the first time. But he wasn't expecting to have to deal with it five minutes after he woke up, Lana introduced them and he tried really hard to have an open mind, but everything about Gajeel was just pissing him off. Lana probably would have kicked him in the head if he asked him what was up with the piercings, he just looked like the kind of bastard that would break his baby's heart and not feel a thing about it. He knew he shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but Kin was a little bit biased when it came to his baby girl.

Kin was brooding and it was definitely noticeable because Lana kicked his shin under the table. He was trying to make small talk with Gajeel, maybe his personality was less standoffish than his looks, but he kept giving him one word answers and it was really pissing him off.

Kin found out Gajeel was younger than he looked, but he still thought he was too old to be dating his Levy. He knew he was being a hypocrite because he was four years older than Lana, but its different when its your daughter dating the older guy. He was a stunned when he asked Gajeel how he and Levy met, Gajeel asked him if he wanted the version Levy was telling people, or the real one. Kin already heard Levy's version from Lana a few weeks ago when they were talking on the phone, but Gajeel recently told Lana the truth and though it was a way better story but she knew why Levy wanted to hide that from her and her father. Kin told him he wanted to hear both, so he could compare the stories, there was no way his daughter could have been doing anything too bad, so he was curious as to where the hell she was when she met someone like Gajeel.

* * *

"Well, Shrimps been telling people we met at the library and stuff, but that was the second time we met. The first time we were at my friends party and he decided to lock us in a closet cause he's an ass hole. And her friends thought she needed to play seven minutes in heaven to loosen up." Kin's jaw dropped he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the rest of the story, but he was in this deep and he didn't want to play they what if game so he stop him. "She was pretty pissed at first, but i got her to come around."Great, just what Kin wanted to hear. "Those idiots thought they were funny and it ended up being an all night thing." Lana laughed about it all over again, she could just imagine Levy's face through the whole thing. Kin on the other hand paled, first he raised an eyebrow at him referring to Levy as Shrimp. They already had pet names, great. But finding out how they made met him like Gajeel even less, he knew what went on those kinds of parties, the fact her baby was there was bad enough. But for her to be playing a game like that, with a guy like Gajeel made him want to cry.

Obviously it wasn't a one time thing since Gajeel was now sitting in his dinning room, comfortably at that. His daughters boyfriend should have been terrified to meet him the first time, but Gajeel made himself at home, sipping coffee and eating breakfast across from himself like it was the most natural thing in the world. That let Kin know right there, Gajeel was already used to being here.

Kin tried to change the subject, anything that would take his mind off the information he just heard. He couldn't tell if Lana was still laughing at the story or if she was laughing at the pain she knew her husband was going through. Gajeel on the other hand was completely nonchalant, he was sure Gajeel could tell him he had sex with his daughter on the kitchen table and not flinch. It was obvious he didn't care what Kin thought of his and Levy's relationship, he was too fucking cocky and it was pissing him off. "So Gajeel... You're in pretty good shape, you must spend a lot of time in the gym." Kin tried really hard to keep his cool, but he was sure that his words came out like venom. Kin didn't really give a shit if Gajeel was in shape or not, he was just wondering how hard it would be to kick his ass.

Gajeel made eye contact with him, and with a smirk Gajeel said "Yeah, your daughter likes it." and Kin was ready to jump over the table.

* * *

Gajeel was very subtle in how he was pissing Levy's dad off, he couldn't just stroll into the mans house and pick a fight with him because he felt like it, he didn't want to be on Levy's shit list too. He was just innocently telling the man everything he didn't want to know. Lana told him that Kin was still in denial about the whole Levy growing up thing, so Gajeel was going to poke at that wound as much as possible. The longer Kin sat across from Gajeel the more uncomfortable he looked. Gajeel made a comment about how Levy was a bed hog even though she was so small, and he "innocently" asked her parents who she got the whole drooling thing from. Gajeel was going to keep subtly mentioning that they've shared a bed as many times as he could.

"Good morning Daddy." Levy didn't seem to notice the tension in the room, or she chose to ignore it. She hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek calming him down, he couldn't exactly get into a fight with Levy's boyfriend in front of her. He just got back on her good side. He watched Levy kiss her mom on her forehead before kissing her still flat belly before she made it over to her boyfriend to give him a good morning kiss. Kin mentally groaned when Gajeel pulled Levy into his lap to steal a second kiss. Kin did his best but he suffered through the rest of their "family" breakfast.

"Honey..." Kin tried to choose his words wisely, telling his wife he was going to kill him would probably just start a fight, so he said the first thing that came to mind. "Did my teenage daughter just ride off on the back of her hoodlum boyfriends bike?" Lana just laughed, she had been watching her husband squirm in his seat since he came down for breakfast. She was glad she put Gajeel up to that, just little jabs here and there was enough to send him over the edge and Gajeel had like the best poker face for it. Gajeel asked her when he showed up if he should be loving boyfriend, or boyfriend from hell, and she told him to be subtle but annoying. Gajeel was still nice enough to make everyone breakfast, but Kin was so busy staring him down, he didn't even notice.

For some reason Kin felt a chill go down his spine, and he knew his day was about to get worse. If looks could kill he would have been a goner, he hated when his wife looked at him like this."You know he was trying to get under your skin." Kin looked at her like she was crazy, why the hell would Levy's boyfriend purposely want to piss him off. "Next time you should try paying attention to him instead of just glaring. Gajeel might seem like a bad guy, but he's actually very sweet. You should see the way he looks at Levy, you can tell he cares about her." Kin rolled his eyes, if he cared so much about Levy he should be trying to get along with him, not piss him off.

"You did make Levy cry and Gajeel worked really hard to cheer her up again, Gajeel shouldn't have to make up for your mistakes. In case you didn't realize it, you're the only bad guy here." He should have known this was coming, Lana always waited until the right time to tear him a new one, while Levy just gave him an icy shoulder. Usually By the time Levy was coming around Lana was hating his guts, and it looked like he was going to have to deal with two angry women. I'm going to give you a run down of why you suck, then I'm going to give you one chance to do a better job. "You ruined her birthday. Again, if you pick a fight with her boyfriend she's just going to push you away, so I suggest you learn to get along with him."

"You're not allowed to have an attitude about her riding on the back of Gajeel's bike. He's going out of the way to take her to school for me, because you still haven't bought her the car you've been promising her for next time you screw around and break my baby's heart, I'm going to break your neck. Then you can wheel yourself down the aisle to give Levy away at her future wedding, or I'll just ask my new husband to do it."

Great now he was going to have to apologize to Gajeel too.


	27. Chapter 27

"You sure you wanna do this shorty? You're gonna be walking right into the lions den." Levy groaned, she knew Gajeel was right, he saw first hand how her friends had been blowing up her phone the past two weeks. Most of Gajeel's friends already knew he was dating someone, but only Juvia and Laxus cared enough to ask him about it. Everyone else pretty much stayed out of his business and he liked it that way. Levy's friends on the other hand wanted a ten page essay on their relationship, and an update at the end of each day. Gajeel knew she would be up all night playing twenty questions. Women were way too nosy, he only had to deal with Juvia and that was bad enough, she already asked to be Gajeel if she could be his best woman in their wedding, and told him she called digs on being godmother to their children. Dealing with a whole bunch of girls like that, for whole night would have made him chew his own leg off to escape. "You know you can skip all this girl shit and spend the night with me." Levy chose to ignore the hand creeping up her thigh, she was sure Gajeel would try just about anything to get out of tonight. "Or we can go to your place and keep your old man up all night."

Levy groaned again, she was trying to forget earlier this week when her dad walked past her room and found them in a very compromising position, she forgot to shut the door all the way, and they were only kissing but Gajeel was on top of her, and her legs were wrapped around her waist. Her dad had been complaining about not being able to unsee that, and walking around moping ever since. Now her dad was on high alert, every time Gajeel was over her dad made sure to find something to do in whatever room they were in. If they were in Levy's room he would come and knock every once in a while to see if they wanted snacks. Gajeel called him a walking cock block, and him spending the night would either end with her dad sleeping outside her door, or Gajeel having to sleep with her dad so he could make sure nothing happened. "I didn't know you were so eager to sleep with my dad. Maybe it'll help you two get along."

Gajeel laughed at that one, last time he was over Lana asked him if he wanted to spend the night, and Kin said if he did they would be spooning together in the guest room if he did. He could still tell Levy's dad wasn't a fan of his, so he made sure to push his buttons every chance he got. Gajeel asked Kin if he wanted to be the big spoon, or the little spoon since he was short like Levy. He ended up getting smacked by Levy for that comment but it was totally worth it to piss Kin off. Gajeel did up spending the night, and sleeping with Levy under the condition that the door had to stay open. Gajeel thought it was dumb, if him and Levy wanted to have sex an open door wasn't going to stop things, but her dad was kind of nuts. He didn't tell Levy yet, but Gajeel was having dinner with Kin tonight, hoping to clear the air between them. With Lana at work, and Levy gone they didn't have to hold back on what they wanted to say, and they could hopefully get to the bottom of the problem. Gajeel knew Levy hated when they fought, but Gajeel didn't really give a shit if Kin liked him or not, but he was going to plead his case and at least try before her dad before he went back to base until Christmas.

* * *

Gajeel was really trying to talk Levy out of this girls night thing, because that meant he was going to have to attend guys night. He even offered to watch all of the Hobbit movies with her if she didn't go, but he probably screwed that up when he said he wanted to learn about her people. If he couldn't use Levy as an excuse not to go, he was going to be stuck at Laxus's house all night with a bunch of idiots. Rogue would totally betray him and let everyone in his room if he just didn't show up. But his friends wouldn't cock block him, so it was either a night with his Shrimp or a sausage fest. And the one thing worse than a sausage fest was one in his room. "You know if you get a little drunk and decide to make out with your friends it's not cheating if you send me pictures. Just don't go smooching Juvia, she's like my sister, and kissing my sister ain't hot, everyone else is fair game."

Levy laughed, she should have know Gajeel was never going to let that go, sure she got a little friendly when she was drunk, the couple times she got tipsy around Gajeel sure she got a little frisky, but most of the time she was just giggly. "Idiot, you're the only one I want to kiss." She was glad Gajeel had tinted windows, her friends would never let her live it down if they saw her climb on her boyfriends lap mid lip lock in the middle of the day. She barely saw Gajeel all week, she was going to get her kisses in when she could. She was so used to pulling him down by the collar for a kiss, she did it even when she didn't have to. When he didn't have a shirt on she would just tug gently on his hair, and he would pick her up just to bring her to his height.

Besides the teasing she was really looking forward to today, everyone was so busy that they didn't really get to hang out like they wanted, but that came with school starting and all. She didn't notice so much because her nose was usually in a book and Jet and Droy were always by her side. They didn't have any classes together at the college and they were out of high school so she was feeling pretty lonely when she wasn't with Gajeel. She used to spend every single day with Jet and Droy, but now she only saw them a few times a week and it made her sad. She keeps telling them that they really need to meet Gajeel, and they keep coming up with excuses not too. Lucy said they were probably still hurt over her getting a boyfriend and they need time, and throwing Gajeel in their face probably wouldn't help things. She was hoping that wasn't the case, she really liked Gajeel, and she didn't think she should feel guilty for being happy. Gajeel was busy a lot of the time too, but he made sure to make time for her, and he made their time together count. He was constantly texting Levy because he was so "bored." If Gajeel could make time for her, why couldn't Jet and Droy, she knew it was selfish since Gajeel was her boyfriend and he was supposed to spend time with her, but Jet and Droy were supposed to be her best friends and she felt like she was getting a cold shoulder.

She tried to push that thought in the back of her mind for the night, at least she was getting to spend the night with her girlfriends, and she wasn't going to let anything bring her down. Plus she planned on spending the rest of the weekend with Gajeel, she asked Jet and Droy if they wanted to do anything, but they both said they were busy so she was going to spend all her spare time with Gajeel instead. The more she got to know Gajeel, the easier it was to tease him, sometimes Gajeel would do something nice and Levy would tell him he was showing his cute side. He would act annoyed but she needed some sort of payback for all the short jokes."But if you wanna get drunk and kiss Lax-"

"You better not finish that." The glare he gave would strike fear into anyone else and it just made her giggle. "Plus if anything that ain't you comes near my lips it's getting punched." That was pretty romantic coming from Gajeel, he was showing his cute side again, but she wasn't going to ruin the moment by saying so. She just kissed him on the forehead, and laid her head on top of his. She was supposed to be at Lucy's by six so she still had about ten minutes left.

"Are you sure you don't want to leave Lily with me. Didn't you say he gets mean every time he went to guys night with you?" She knew Sting had a kitten too, and she was pretty sure if Natsu was going to be there he would be taking his cat too. Gajeel explains a while ago that Lily could be overly fatherly when it came to younger cats. She saw firsthand how he acted with Frosch, anytime Gajeel and Rouge would be fighting Lily would stand in front of the smaller cat to make sure he was safe. Apparently it was way worse when he was kitten sitting Lector, Frosch, and Happy. Guys night meant lots of fighting, but even after everything calmed down Lily was still iffy about letting anyone near the other cats going as far as biting anyone he saw as a threat.

"Lil will be fine, it's everyone else that has to watch out for him. Levy scratched between Lily's ears and kissed Gajeel one last time before climbing out of his car. He handed Levy her over night bag before telling her his one last request. "Hey Shrimp, send me butt pic's" The face she made was somewhere between embarrassed and mad and he couldn't help but laugh at her slamming the door and stomping off. Between talking to her dad, and a night with the guys he was going to need a feminine touch, he was glad he was spending the rest of the weekend with his Shrimp.

* * *

"You know what Gajeel, I might actually like you just a little bit when you're not sniffing around my daughter." Gajeel had to laugh at that, he was actually thinking the same thing. Kin was way less uptight than he usually was, maybe it was the fact he was on his fifth beer, or the fact Gajeel wasn't currently dangling his and Levy's relationship right in his face. Lily was sleep in his lap, and Gajeel switched to water after his second beer. He planned on getting smashed at Laxus's house, and he still needed to drive over there. Even though Levy's place wasn't too far from there he wasn't going to risk driving drunk and he didn't feel like walking.

"Yeah you're slightly less of a dick than usual." Kin laughed at that, he had spent the past couple hours talking with Gajeel and he was sure tonight was going to end with them ripping out each other's throats. The first hour they just argued, and Gajeel pretty much told him that he didn't give a shit what he thought, and that Kin should just get over the fact him and Levy were together. Of course that pissed Kin off, Gajeel was way too smug and cocky and their personalities clashed, but Gajeel was dating Levy not Kin. He was starting to wonder if Gajeel talked to his parents like that, to him Gajeel was still some snot nosed brat that was pretending to be an adult while he was still living off of his parents. And to Gajeel Kin was just some uptight old man that was picking and choosing when he wanted to parent Levy. Gajeel was rolling his eyes when Kin was trying to give him some bull shit speech about not wanting Levy to get hurt so of course he was going to give anyone she dates the same treatment. That's when Gajeel called his bull shit and Kin respected it for it. "Only one person in this room has made Levy cry. You might want to look in the mirror before you try to lecture me."

Kin already knew he didn't have the best track record with Levy, he could always tell when she was pissed at him, and Lana wouldn't hesitate to rip him a new one, but to hear about his baby crying because of him was like getting punched in the gut. Of course Levy would talk to her boyfriend when she was upset, most of the time she would just give Kin the cold shoulder or pretend everything was fine. He knew she didn't confront him on a lot of things because she didn't like conflict, and she didn't want to fight with him because he was always gone. "Yeah you're right... I can't make any promises, but I'll try to back off. But if I find out you hurt my baby, I'm gonna let my wife unleash her five feet of fury on you. That's scarier than anything I can do to you."

Gajeel laughed at that, he was positive Lana would kill him and make it look like a natural death, he already knew not to cross her, but at least she welcomed him with open arms. He always felt like Kin wanted him to prove himself even though he hadn't even heard a word about him until around Levy's birthday. Levy always talked about her mom, so he just assumed her dad wasn't in the picture. When he found out what the situation was really like, he was pretty pissed off for both Levy and Lana. Gajeel was purposely picking fights with Kin because he walked around like he was a saint while he was constantly flaking on them, they were so used to it they had just given up, but Gajeel didn't have a problem poking the bear. Especially when that bear was trying to give him shit for dating his daughter.

Kin still thought Gajeel was a dick, but if both his girls were crazy about him they were obviously seeing something in him. And the fact Gajeel had the balls to confront him about their problems without the girls here to play referee showed that he actually cared about Levy. Kin brought up a lot of things that worried him, but how Gajeel responded to them almost made him feel better. Kin hated how the two them met, it was definitely something he could have went without hearing, but Gajeel had a point in saying it would be worse if he lied about it and he found out later. He was so used to thinking of Levy as a little girl, and know she was hanging around Gajeel who was a grown man. Over the past few weeks he was finding out everything he disliked about their relationship was all in his head.

Every time Lana called him on his shit his defense was that Gajeel had a bad attitude. Lana would say that's just his personality, and Kin would say that makes it worse. He was trying to keep his distance, but Gajeel picked her up and brought her home pretty much everyday and he stuck around a most of the time. Keeping away from him was fine until he walked in on him mauling his daughter. Then he was finding reasons to stick around Gajeel hoping to discourage that kind of behavior. It pretty much kept him up at night thinking about what the hell they did at Gajeel's house. He highly doubted there was any adult supervision, and he wanted to ask Lana what she thought about meeting his parents. Kin would be leaving in a month, and Gajeel would still be here, so he was going to have to make sure he was leaving his daughter in good hands. The last three hours were eye opening, the fact Gajeel wouldn't back down showed one side of him, and watching him play with the cat in his lap showed another side. Before He left all Kin could think to say is the same words his father in law said when he finally realized he was there to stay. "You knock her up, I'll castrate you."

Gajeel just rolled his eyes and laughed. "Noted."


	28. Chapter 28

Laxus opened the door before Gajeel even had a chance to knock. "About damn time, I thought your old man in law murdered you and was hiding the body." Gajeel fake laughed, he was sure Kin thought about it a few times, but the more beers he drank the less annoying he was which was the opposite of half of the idiots at this sleep over bull shit. Gajeel was completely uninterested in hanging out with his little brother and all their friends because the same crap happened every time. They would drink too much, play video games all night, eat shitty food and gossip like women. Not to mention Natsu and Gray would start fights and everyone would end up jumping in, and furniture usually ended up being destroyed. Getting yelled at by Laxus's gramps sucked when you had a hangover, and they usually ended up doing push ups or running laps as punishment.

"Yeah yeah, any collateral damage yet, cause I ain't trying to run suicides hung-over." He figured the place was going to be destroyed the way Laxus had been blowing up his phone. Apparently Gray was already stripped down to his underwear, and Natsu somehow burned popcorn so the kitchen smelled lovely. Laxus's fan club were here so Gajeel was going have a swell time hearing Freed talk about how smart he is, and Bickslow be a lunatic. At least Evergreen wasn't here, Gajeel could deal with her all of two seconds before he wanted to hang himself with his hair. He let Lily run loose, he had been over here so many times the cat knew how to make himself at home, plus the cat behaved well at Levy's house so now he was free to run amok as long as he didn't piss on anything.

Laxus made an annoyed face and made a comment about him being gone two minutes, right now Natsu and Elfman were in the middle of a fight, and the living room looked like a tornado hit it, apparently a pillow fight turned into a real fight and now there were feathers flying everywhere and Natsu was finding random shit to throw. Somehow Gray also lost his boxers in those two minutes and was running around naked, looking for his clothes. Juvia would be ecstatic to walk in a room to just see Gray's bare ass, Gajeel on the other hand, was not. Sting and Rogue were completely oblivious in the middle of playing a game on the big screen and everyone else just seemed to ignoring what was going on in the middle of the room, and doing their own thing. Gajeel didn't even have a chance to put his bag down before he was tackled by a smiling Natsu telling him to fight him. Gajeel knew he should have stayed home, tonight was going to be great.

* * *

As soon as Levy walked into the door she wanted to walk right back out. Maybe she could catch Gajeel before he drove away, seeing all of her friends crowded around the window trying to act natural, meant somebody had to see something. She was stopped by Cana who threw an arm over her shoulder. "So... You tied down Redfox? Huh? Good job, he's a babe! All hair, muscles, and piercings, I bet he's beast in the sack." Levy couldn't help the way her face lit up after that, she hated being put on the spot like that. Cana had a big smile on her face as she told Levy that she saw them getting cozy in his car a couple minutes ago. Which meant everyone else had to run to the window to try to see.

"No wonder she's the last one here!" Levy was really happy to see Mira, but she didn't trust that gleam in her eye. Mira was good at being sneaky, they started hanging out more since Laxus and Gajeel were always together. Mira would lightly tease Levy whenever she had a chance, but Levy learned the hard way that she was behaving herself in front of Gajeel. As soon as Gajeel was out of ear shot Mira would pull out the good stuff making Levy's face turn red and make her trip over her words. Levy thought it was funny that when Gajeel and Laxus got together she turned into a third wheel, neither one of them would admit it but they had a full blown bromance going on. At least with Mira around she had someone to talk to even if she embarrassed her every chance she got.

Recently her and Gajeel went on a double date with Mira and Laxus, and it was the boys idea. Usually Gajeel moaned and groaned at the idea of a double date, he called it a designated cock block. And Laxus usually just flat out refused to do group dates, he didn't want anyone seeing him be romantic so his dates were usually just him and Mira, and most of the time they would just get away for a romantic weekend, Laxus was secretly romantic and just thought one on one was better. They decided on dinner and a movie and Mira made a joke that Laxus and Gajeel were the ones on the date, and she and Levy were just brought along for show.

Levy already knew the two liked to pick at each other, every other week Gajeel was trying to find a way to get Laxus back for something he did to him. But it was all in good fun. Like at dinner when they weren't trying to out eat each other they were trying to tease each other and figure out who was the biggest pansy for their girl. Laxus kept teasing Gajeel about always talking about how awesome his shrimp was. It kind of surprised Levy that he actually bragged about her, and it honestly made her night. Gajeel was teasing Laxus about his grand gestures, the most recent one sitting on one of Mira's fingers. Gajeel didn't get the point of a promise ring, it was just a pre engagement ring. He told Laxus to either go big or go home some Mira can stop planning every one else's weddings.

By the time they actually made it to the theatre Mira was done with their bickering and told them to go see something together so they can kiss and make up. Levy thought it was funny, she could tell both of the boys wanted to object, but something about Mira's smile told them not to so they just sulked off to a movie together. Instead of actually seeing a movie themselves they went to get ice cream and talked the whole time the boys were gone.

* * *

"Spending every moment of quality time possible with him huh? You guys are so cute." Levy didn't know how she was going to deal with Lucy too! Lucy had been teasing her all week, since her and Gajeel were still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship they were kind of up each other's butts. Lucy constantly stole her phone and read their texts, Levy was still in the dog house with Lucy for hiding their relationship for so long. Levy made a face and stuck her tongue out at Lucy, she knew this was going to be a night full of teasing, she just wasn't expecting it to start as soon as she came in the door. "They probably got stuck together since Levy's got that thing in her mouth." Levy rolled her eyes, Lucy had been teasing her about getting her tongue pierced without knowing the stigma behind it.

Levy was mortified afterward, she even looked it up on the internet, and she couldn't even blame anyone but herself for getting a piercing without researching it first. She asked Gajeel if he knew about it, and he laughed and told her she was probably the only person on earth that didn't know about that. For a couple days she thought about just taking it out, she didn't want people to think about her like that, but Gajeel convinced her to keep it another week after they got them changed just to see how she felt about it after that. Once she had a bar that actually fit, she was pretty in love with the piercing, and she was able to find a pink ring that wasn't really visible unless she stuck out her tongue. Gajeel stuck to the silver like he did all his other piercings, and since his was metal he could chew on his without it breaking, but Levy was pretty sure he was going to break his teeth. The longer she had it the more she liked it. After going through a week of it being swollen and hurting like hell, there was no way she was taking it out. The week she went through of it moving around too much when she talked, wasn't really that bad, she was just glad the swelling was gone.

Once she got it changed she had a really good week of her and Gajeel learning how to kiss each other all over again. That was her favorite week, and she decided to keep it. Her dad wasn't really happy when he discovered she and Gajeel got matching tongue piercings mostly because he said he knew what they were for. But he said it was done now and at least it wasn't a tattoo or a baby.

* * *

"You wanna lay on my chest and talk about your feelings? Since you're acting like a little bitch, I thought I might treat you like one." Gajeel and Laxus had been friends for years, to most people it seemed like they were treating each other like shit. But when it came down to it they were actually pretty close. Gajeel was older than most of his friends so when he started high school he was pretty much on his own. He went from being the king of his middle school, to a little freshmen and he didn't take the change well. He was still pretty tall by the time he hit high school, so most people didn't mess with him, but if he wanted respect he needed to take down the biggest guy in the school, and that guy was Laxus. Gajeel did his best but he didn't exactly win that fight, he ended up getting his ass kicked and he thought he was going to get kicked out of school and grounded all for nothing. After a week with no consequences Gajeel found out that everyone was too afraid of Laxus to tell on him for fighting so he never got in trouble for it.

Laxus thought Gajeel had a lot of balls for a little freshman to challenge him to a fight, and Gajeel lasted longer than anyone else did so they became friends after that. Everyone was too afraid to mess with Gajeel not only because he could hold his own, but they didn't want to piss off Laxus in the process. It wasn't until a couple weeks later that they found out their brothers were best friends, some jackass was messing with Sting and Rogue and they were both too scared to say anything about it. That kid had the worse day of his life when not one, but too pissed off older brothers showed up and had to play rock paper scissors to see who had the honor of kicking his ass. Neither one of them were the type to talk about their feelings so if one noticed something was up with the other they would bring it up in a teasing manner.

Gajeel knew Laxus had a hidden agenda for bringing him to his room, Gajeel told Laxus if he tried to touch his naughty parts he was going to punch him, and tell Mira. Even though Laxus and Gajeel were on the same team Gajeel shot his player in the back making Laxus respawn before hunting down Gajeel in the game to get his revenge. They got sick of all the chaos in the living room they came upstairs to join the game. They were currently fighting against Gray and Natsu and they were pretty sure they were winning so easily because they could hear the two boys were fighting each other downstairs. "Look I get it, you're in a shitty mood because you haven't been getting your dick touched. I told you settling down and dating a good girl was going to be like middle school all over again. I know exactly what you're going through, so if you're going to annoy me with your feelings and shit, or whatever. Do it while I'm drunk so I won't remember."

"Stop flirting with me." Gajeel rolled his eyes, he knew Laxus was going to bring this up, Gajeel slipped up one time and asked Laxus what he did to keep himself in check. Even though he really didn't need to know, he knew Laxus and Mira didn't even mess around until like six months into their relationship. It was a long six months, almost everyday Laxus would pop up at Gajeel's gym wanting to fight someone and it didn't usually end well for his opponent. Gajeel didn't know how he did it, Laxus was worse than him. Sure Gajeel had the occasional hook up, but he wasn't half as bad as Laxus. He went from hooking up with different girls every weekend to dating a girl who wouldn't even let him touch her. One time Laxus got drunk and decided to tell Gajeel in great detail how he was fapping like he was thirteen again and found out what his dick was really for. That made him not want to sit anywhere in Laxus's room for like a month, but now he knew what he was talking about. Gajeel didn't so much want to run around being a whore like he used to, he was just really worried about accidentally pushing Levy into doing something that she wasn't ready for.

"Blue balls ain't gonna kill me." Gajeel already knew how he felt about Levy, and he didn't mind waiting for her, a lot of times when they were messing around he would wonder how hard it would actually be to convince her to have sex with him. He was sure if he told her that he loved her she would probably be the one to jump him, but he didn't want things to happen like that. He told himself it wasn't going to happen unless she brought it up, he knew the first time was really important to a girl, and he wasn't just going to take that from her. "But thanks..."

* * *

"He treating you right? Or do I have to pay him a visit?" Levy was glad to have a good friend like Cana, even if she pried a lot of the time. Cana was the main person that convinced her that she shouldn't settle for Jet or Droy. She told her to go for someone she was passionate about or she would end up bored and hurting one of their feelings. Levy sunk a little farther in the bathtub she was currently sharing with Cana, she usually just shared with Lucy but she was self conscious no matter who she was taking a bath with. She was pretty comfortable talking to Cana about most things, sure she would tease her a lot of the time but she was serious when she needed to be. She still hadn't told Gajeel but Cana was the one who taught her how to kiss. They were pretty drunk when it happened, but when Levy admitted she wouldn't even know what to do if a boy did kiss her, Cana helped her fix that.

Gajeel asked her if she was attracted to girls and she didn't really have an answer to that, she just told him she liked him. She never thought about it before, girls were pretty to look at, and she was often jealous of some assets that she was lacking in, but she had never been in a relationship with a girl, or actually considered it before. But she wasn't sexually experienced either way, besides stories from her friends, books and porn, she didn't really have anything else to go off of. She knew there would be differences between being with a girl and a guy, but she didn't know how different it would be. Even between kissing Gajeel and Cana there wasn't that much of a difference, they both had long hair, and were pretty aggressive, not to mention they both liked to grab her butt.

She would never tell him that though, besides Gajeel's constant stubble there wasn't that much of a difference in execution, its probably why she was so comfortable kissing Gajeel when they started dating. The fact she actually had feelings for Gajeel made all the difference, she knew every inch of her body was attracted to him. She could kiss Cana and go back to doing whatever she was doing before no problem. Whenever she kissed Gajeel, he would have to stop things. Levy thought she was good at hiding the effect he had on her, until one day he had to change before they left to go somewhere. Levy didn't get it at first, she thought the way he was dressed was fine. When Gajeel admitted she left a wet spot him she was mortified, it got worse when he told her not to worry about it, because it happens all the time.

Even after thinking about it, she still didn't have a real answer, It wasn't a yes, it wasn't a no, it was just an I don't know. Gajeel told her he ain't ever been with a guy, but he knows he doesn't want to be. Gajeel loved teasing her, he told her if she ever wanted to hook up with a girl, he was okay with that, he would just want to be there to supervise things. A lot of the time Gajeel's perverted side would be showing and she would call him on it, even though she wasn't that confident about her body, she never had to question if Gajeel was attracted to her or not. Even the way he complemented her was in his own way, where most guys would tell their girlfriends they were cute or pretty Gajeel would just tell her that he liked looking at her. Gajeel was sweet in his own way, and she was head over heels in love. "I like him... A lot." Talking to Cana made her feel better, even if she asked all the personal questions. "I kind of want to take things farther, but I wouldn't even begin to know what to do. Sure I've read books and stuff but i don't really know what's real, and what's fiction. It's frustrating."

"Why don't you just ask him what he likes?" Of course Cana would tell her the most obvious thing to do, if she wanted to know what Gajeel liked she could go straight to the source, but she probably still wouldn't know what to do, and asking him to teach her was way too embarrassing. She just wished she could make Gajeel feel half as good as he made her. "Okay fine, I'll give you a crash course in wooing your man. But you're gonna have to give me all the low down dirty details afterward."


	29. Chapter 29

"Why the fuck do you think I would know something like that?" Gajeel turned and looked at Laxus like he was insane. There was no way he could be talking to Mira like that, she would skin him alive through the phone. Laxus didn't admit it, but Gajeel was pretty sure he was afraid of his woman, hell Gajeel was afraid of her. There was something about the way she smiled when she was pissed off. "Well, tell Cana to go fuck herself, I could have went the rest of my life not thinking about that." Now Gajeel was really eavesdropping if Laxus suddenly decided to have a death wish and piss a bunch of girls of Gajeel wanted no part of it. As much as he loved pissing Levy off, he didn't want to see her really mad, and if Laxus decided to go down the list and make all the girls mad, Laxus wouldn't hesitate to throw him under the bus to take some of the heat of himself. "Fuck no! No! My final answer is no!" This conversation was getting real bad real quick, it went from pillow talk that made Gajeel want to puke, to fuck you and all your friends.

The last thing Gajeel wanted to deal with a mopey Laxus. The last time him and Mira got into a fight Laxus was a real bastard for like a week. He turned into Natsu on him, every time he saw him there was no "Hey Gajeel, What's up?" it was "Fight me right now!" It wasn't friendly spars like they normally had, it was Laxus trying to kill him, and Gajeel trying not to die. Sting ended up staying at their house a few days because Laxus was doing the same thing to him. Not to mention Gajeel had to become a full time cock block, Laxus would get drunk and when he was drunk, he was stupid. Even if they were broke up if Laxus fucked around and messed with a girl and Mira found out, she would have never taken him back. "Gajeel finally got sick of it and stole Laxus's phone while he was passed out and apologized to Mira, he made it extra sappy and with the help of Levy it was believable. After that everyone got to breathe easy again. Gajeel was not going through that again.

"Mira I love you, and I would do anything for you. Except that. I ain't asking him. If you want I'll pass him the phone and you can ask him, but I'm kind of concerned that you want to know in the first place." Gajeel knew when he was being talked about, and he really didn't want to know what that phone call was about. Laxus had been arguing with his woman the last five minutes about something, and the fact Laxus who didn't give a shit, didn't want to ask him he knew it was going to be a bull shit question. "His woman is right there why don't you ask her? ...You know what, fine! But he's probably gonna punch me in the face. And I'm going to deserve it, but I'm still going to punch him back. I'll call you back when I'm done fighting Gajeel." Gajeel raised an eye brow, Laxus looked really uncomfortable so he knew this was probably going to be fucking stupid. Laxus sighed and Gajeel just wished he would hurry up and ask him. "Is your dick pierced?"

* * *

Levy's jaw dropped when the question came out of Cana's mouth. It was like the whole room went silent, waiting for her answer. Nobody believed her when she said she didn't know. And they ignored her protest when Mira decided to call Laxus and ask him if he knows, it made he wonder if they took baths together they way her and her friends do. Gajeel and Laxus were both really tall so she didn't know how they would fit. She was pretty sure they didn't because Jet and Droy never took baths together except when they were kids. It must just be a girl thing, sometimes Levy and her mom would still shower together if they were in a hurry and it wasn't weird, that was one way she knew she wasn't going to get a lot in the boob department. She was already a size bigger than her mom and she wasn't even expecting that, her mom told her the only time in her life she had any boobs was when she was pregnant, and Levy wasn't planning on that any time soon.

Levy always felt like she was the last to do anything when it came to her friends, she was the last to get a boyfriend, last to be kissed, and she was the only virgin in the group. It wasn't so bad when it was her and Lucy together, but once Lucy and Natsu finally got together Levy heard way too much about their sex life and she never had anything to talk about when that subject came amongst her friends. On her seventeenth birthday she decided if she still a virgin by the time prom came around she was just going to lose it then, the thought wasn't very romantic, but she didn't want to spend her whole life inexperienced. Cana offered to sleep with her more than a few times when she was drunk, but Levy didn't know how she felt about losing her virginity to a girl.

Her and Gajeel had only been dating a few months and they had yet to be that intimate, and when they did mess around it was usually him touching her. Anytime her hands tried to wander anywhere near his lap he would pin them over her head and go back to touching her. She went back and forth between wanting to get it done and over with, and taking her time. She already knew how Gajeel felt about the situation, he was going to drag it out as long as possible unless she made a move on him. He didn't exactly tell her that, but she read it in one of his texts to Juvia because Levy made her ask. She had only seen Gajeel naked one time and that was an accident, most of the time he at least kept his underwear on and that didn't leave much to the imagination.

It was one of the days she and Rogue drove to school together and instead of sticking around to study Levy decided to surprise Gajeel with breakfast since he had been working so hard lately. She knew better than trying to cook something, especially at his house, she really didn't want to officially meet his parents by accidentally burning their kitchen down so she just stopped by a diner to pick up something. If she knew a head of time she probably wouldn't have jumped on him and pulling at his sheets to wake him up. Levy could tell that Gajeel kept trying to tell her something but she kept cutting him off with kisses, and he kept hiding his face in the pillow. Levy found out the hard way, and had that image of his butt forever etched in her mind. Gajeel had a fun time teasing her about it, he told her if she wanted him naked that bad she just had to ask. He would have preferred her showing some skin too, but she was embarrassed enough as it was.

* * *

It took Gajeel almost half minute for him to register what just came out his mouth, he wasn't sure if he was supposed to be angry, offended or amused. If he didn't know Laxus's woman put him up to this he probably would have punched him in the face. Instead he decided to a dick about it."I told you to stop hitting on me, I have a girlfriend." Laxus knew that laugh, it meant mischief. He would have preferred being punched in the face, now Gajeel was never going to let this go. It was either piss off Mira, or piss off Gajeel and Gajeel would just tell him to fuck off and get over it. But this was worse, Gajeel was probably going to bring this up every chance he had for the next ten years. "Want me to pull it out so you can check for yourself?"

Laxus wanted to choke him, but he put himself in this situation, so he couldn't be too mad about Gajeel's reaction, but he still would have preferred getting punched in the face. "I don't wanna see, touch, or think about your fucking dick. Just know that's the current conversation the girls are having. I don't care if you got a hole in it or not. And if you pull your dick out pierced or not. I'm gonna punch you in the balls." Gajeel just laughed at him, by the look on his face it physically pained Laxus to ask him that. But there was no way Gajeel was answering that question, or letting him live it down. He liked it being a mystery. Gajeel thought it was funny how many people were curious about it. It was one of the first things people thought about when they saw his piercings, but it was rare that anyone had the balls to ask him.

"Are you sure? This is a one time offer to see my goods, if you're nice i might even let you touch it."

Laxus finally lost his temper and punched Gajeel. "Metal faced idiot."

Gajeel could already feel his cheek swelling, but he was still laughing at his friend. "It was so worth it."

"I fucking hate you Gajeel" Laxus rolled his eyes, but he knew if the tables were turned, he would have given him just as much shit, if not more. "This conversation didn't happen."

"Yeah the fuck it did. And when i tell my version of it, you were looking deeply in my eyes and shit."

"I'm gonna hit you again." Laxus tried to ignore the fact Gajeel was still laughing at him on the floor, he knew he was never going to hear the end of this. He just had to sigh, the stupid things he did for love.

* * *

Gajeel hated feeling like a babysitter but, on his way to get ice for his cheek he noticed a suspiciously empty living room. There was no sign of the idiots, and Gajeel knew if he just ignored it, things weren't going to end well. He told Laxus it was way too quiet down here, but Laxus told him he was paranoid. Now all the idiots were missing, that wasn't a good sign, one idiot causing trouble was one thing, all the idiots working together let him know that this night just wasn't going to end well. "Hey jackass! All your guests are gone." Laxus grumbled under his breathe be should have known better to trust freed and Bixlow to baby-sit. Knowing those two Bixlow was probably plotting with the idiots and Freed got dragged along to do damage control.

Rogue was trying to be the voice of reason, but somehow he got dragged into another one of Sting's shenanigans, it wasn't even Sting's idea in the first place it was Bickslow's, but somehow everyone else jumped on board and now Rogue was sure he was going to die. Elfman was the only one who spoke up against the idea, and now he was locked in the closet back at the house. That's when Rogue knew this whole thing was out of control. Him and Freed were the only ones who decided to stay in hiding, it was like talking to a brick wall trying to convince the other guys that this was all around a bad idea. They had already been gone from the house for about ten minutes and he was hoping maybe Gajeel or Laxus noticed soon. Rogue would rather get his ass kicked by his brother any day of the week, then die by the hands of vengeful females.

He knew he should have just called Gajeel and told him what was going on, but he left his phone in Sting's room, and there was no way to contact him now. He tried to be discreet and leave a note for him telling them where they went, and he was just hoping Gajeel saw it soon. The closer the guys got to the window the more Rogue was sure he was going to die, sure he could admit he was curious about what girls did at sleepovers too. But, not curious enough to climb the lattice on the side of Lucy's house. Rouge wasn't even sure how it was supporting all of them, Natsu and Gray were climbing up one side, and Bickslow and Sting were climbing up the other side. Peeking in on girls was stupid, peeking in on a group of girls that could kill you was just insane. He heard all the horror stories about Mira from Sting, she always seemed super nice when he was around, but even Laxus was on his best behavior when it came to her. He was just going to assume Lisanna was just as deadly, but he didn't really want to find out. If you didn't know Erza's reputation you were an idiot who lived under a rock, his brother was teasing Levy not to long ago and Erza put him in a headlock to teach him a lesson and Gajeel actually had to tap out.

Cana was bad enough on her own, most of the time she was a carefree drunk, but he had seen first hand how violent she could be when someone drank the last of her beer. When she was done kicking your ass, she had a big bad daddy to give you seconds. Gildarts was a pretty care free guy, but he used to bring Gajeel home by his ear and he loved Gajeel but not as much as he loved Cana. Rogue had known Juvia since he was a kid so he knew she could get pretty nasty if she wanted to. She used to get bullied a lot back in the day so Gajeel taught her how to defend herself, they used to fight each other when they were younger, and it was rare that Rogue could actually beat her. He was sure Gray would get a free pass from her on this, but everyone else was going to pay. And he had seen first hand the damage a Lucy kick could do, when Natsu accidentally burned a hole in her shirt. Levy was like his sister, and she was always super sweet, but even Gajeel told him that she could be a tiny death ninja when she was mad. Some ass hole at their school was trying to mess with her in the hallway and before Rogue could step in and kick that guys ass, Levy hit him with one of her text books and walked away like nothing happened. When he told Gajeel what happened he was just kind of quiet, apparently Levy had hit him with books too.

Everyone claimed that they were being curious, they weren't being perverts, but something about that glint in Bickslow's eye let him know he had an ulterior motive. If they wanted to look at girls they had the internet, this was just excessive. Not to mention three out of four of those idiots were dating one of the girls up there, so seeing them naked shouldn't have been a problem. He just knew they were going to get caught and him and Freed were going to die just for being the lookouts. If the girls didn't get to them, Elfman, Gajeel and Laxus were going to. Rogue just wanted to have a good time with his friends and now he was going to die.

Natsu climbed in and out of Lucy's room on a daily bases, so he was already at the top peeking in, but Rogue didn't think that everyone going at once was the greatest idea. He tried to convince Sting to stay down here with him, but he wanted to fit in and follow Natsu. Gray wasn't that far behind, and even from where he was standing he could see the perverted smile on Bickslow's face. Rogue's heart almost stopped when he heard somebody pull up and he was hoping it wasn't someone who was going to call the cops. "Please tell me those idiot's aren't doing what I think they're doing." Gajeel face palmed he knew it was going to be something stupid, but he didn't think it was going to be this stupid. He had to get those idiots down before they killed themselves. He knew Natsu's bunny girl was loaded, and they had camera's everywhere so they were going to be fucked as soon as somebody looked at them. Since they wanted to ignore Gajeel when he told them to get the fuck down, he was just going to have to go up there and thrown them off himself.

Gajeel didn't realize he should have thought this through a little more, until he was about half way up, and he heard a crack from the lattice he was standing on. He knew in that moment he was fucked.


	30. Chapter 30

Gajeel hated being fawned over, it happened constantly at work, old women have always had a thing for him, and its always freaked him out. Even when he was all of fifteen years old one of his moms friends tried to hook up with him. He didn't really understand what was going on at the time, but when he found out he told his mom and she ended up kicking her ass. Over the years he caught more than a few of his friends moms giving him the eye, and as soon as it happened he stopped wanting to come over. He got more love confessions than he could count in high school, and it just annoyed him more than anything, he didn't like shit like that. It made him feel like a piece of meat, and it was really rare that anyone actually took the time to try and get to know him. It surprised him a lot of the time how much Levy knew, she could order his food exactly how he liked it without him saying a thing, and when someone was getting on his nerves she would find a reason for them to leave. If anything Gajeel was the one fawning over her, he wasn't like Juvia though, he didn't understand how Gray put up with that nonsense all the time. But he definitely had his moments, and he would have to calm himself down. Sometimes she was just so cute it hurt, and he couldn't help himself. He knew Levy was the same way, and he didn't mind it so much when Levy did it, it didn't happen all the time but it still embarrassed him. The fact there were three additional women fawning over him and up his ass at the moment, was putting him in a bad mood.

Even if it was annoying it was still a hundred times better than what the other guys were getting, after falling to what Gajeel thought surely was his death. Gajeel heard the screams of idiots, the girls had every right to be pissed, and if it wasn't for that Freed guy ratting the other guys out, him and Rogue would have been dead too. Gajeel thought it was funny that none of the girls suspected Freed, Gajeel always he had a thing for Laxus, but that was none of his business so he never said anything about it. Sting made a run for it, and was already gone half a block by the time Freed explained what happened and Gajeel was sure he was going to pay for that later. Knowing him he was going to camp out in Rogues room until the heat died down, but Laxus was going to get to Sting sooner or later if the girls didn't. That's what happens when you shit where you eat, Its never a good idea to peek in on your brothers girlfriend, if Gajeel ever caught Rogue doing some shit like that, he wouldn't have a brother anymore. Gajeel got off easy, he was sure he was going to see a few idiots sitting in the waiting room on his way out of the hospital. The look on Erza's face was enough to even give him nightmares, and the look wasn't even directed towards him. Gajeel knew she could handle those three idiots on her own, and the fact she had a bunch of angry girls as back up, was just the icing on the shit cake for them.

This wasn't even one of the first dozen times Gajeel had a needle shoved in his face, let alone the first, so he didn't understand why everyone was acting like this. It was just a couple stitches, only five for the stupid cut on his forehead. He was gonna kill Rogue for waking up their mom over this, she threatened to come up to the hospital and kill him the minute she heard what happened. If Gajeel hadn't told her he was already on his way home she would have showed up and made a scene and he didn't need to add that to his headache. He was lucky to get in and out of the emergency room in under an hour, if it wasn't for Lana stitching him up in her office he would have been there forever and it would have made this night worse than it already is. He didn't even flinch while she was doing it, but Levy still wanted to hold his hand, and Lana went as far as making a scene and giving him a kiss on the forehead to make it better like he was a kid. Then she turned around and pulled on his ear telling him he was never allowed to walk in her E.R. hurt ever again. She said something about him being a selfish child for making her worry and if he ever did it again she would kill him. Gajeel had more than enough death threats tonight, and he hadn't even seen his mom in person yet.

It's not like he did it on purpose, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. None of the guys were freaking out about the little cut, but all the girls were losing their shit. Something about women made them over nurturing, Levy wouldn't even let him drive home, and Juvia had been blowing up his phone since he left her sight. He couldn't wait to go to bed, he knew he was going to have to calm down his mom first. If he didn't she would kick his door down, and whine about him hurting her baby. And he didn't want to put Levy through that. The minute his mom figured out who Levy was, his mom was going to shove her in her old wedding dress, and embarrass the shit out of both of them. Gajeel was going to stall as long as he could on that.

* * *

Gia Cheney had been sitting in her living room the last half hour waiting for her biggest baby boy to come home and be smothered by her love, then killed for being a fucking brat on the phone. Ever since he was little he found one way or another to make her worry sick, and then he would turn around and sass her every chance he got. Even though he was a brat, he was her brat, and finding out he was in the hospital getting stitches made her want to run to his side. Tonight was supposed to be a romantic night shared with her husband, Gajeel and Rogue were at a sleepover, it was rare that they were both gone on the same night, and the fact they were spending time together, made everything perfect. Her husband Skiadrum came home early and she even bought fancy new underwear for the occasion, but before she even had a chance to show it off properly Rogue came in the door with his friend Sting and told her Gajeel got hurt.

After freaking out and imagining her baby boy dead in a ditch somewhere Sting told her he was already on his way to the hospital, and it wasn't even that bad. Gia resisted the urge to choke Sting mostly because her husband was stopping her from doing so, and turned her rage to her youngest son. "Why the hell aren't you with your brother? Did you let him drive himself? What if he gets in an accident and dies?" She loved Sting like a son, but sometimes he was absolutely infuriating, Rogue knew better than to back talk her, but she was going to punish him too by association.

Rogue didn't mean to blurt it out, he knew Gajeel was going to kill him for spilling the beans. But Gajeel wasn't even half as scary as their mother could be, even though Rogue was using Sting like a human shield it wouldn't have slowed her down that much. If she really wanted to get to him, she would be patient and get him when his guard was down, but his statement managed to get her to stop yelling, so it as worth anything Gajeel could ever think to do to him. Skiadrum finally decided to speak up, telling Rogue to go to his room. "I think you broke your mother, and if you want to avoid the interrogation that's sure to come, I suggest you pretend to be asleep and lock your door."

Skiadrum thought his wife was over reacting, hearing Gajeel had a girlfriend was pretty surprising, but his wife sitting there staring in space for the past five minutes was just unnecessary. "Honey I'm going to call Gajeel, would you like to speak to him? If you do I think we shouldn't mention anything about his girlfriend. I'm sure he'll tell us when he's ready." Skiadrum failed to mention that he was already aware of Gajeel having a girlfriend. And he really wasn't going to say anything about having already met her. He spilled coffee on his shirt one morning and went to get a clean one from the basement only to find a blue head of hair hiding behind a book. At first he thought it was Juvia, she came over from time to time, but she was never here that early in the morning. He thought Levy was a very sweet girl and was glad Gajeel met someone, he introduced himself but made her promise not to Gajeel he was in his room. He didn't want to hear the brat whine and cry about it, so he never said anything about it and was glad Levy kept her promise too"Hey brat you trying to give me gray hairs or something? Do me and mom need to go up there and hold your hand? Or will you me fine on your own?"

He didn't even get to hear Gajeel reply because his wife snatched the phone out of his hand to rip Gajeel a new one, apparently Gia was over the whole girlfriend shock, because she didn't even mention it in her rant. Skiadrum already knew where Gajeel got his mouth from, but hearing such words out of his pretty wife always did something to him. It was bratty coming from Gajeel, it was hot coming from her. Gia went from crying to yelling at Gajeel in fluent profanity, and he was sure Gajeel was giving it to her right back. The two of them constantly argued and yelled at each other but it was so normal in their house that he didn't even flinch when it happened anymore. "Honey... You'll see him when he gets home, then you can yell at him all you want to. Let him get fixed up now, kill him later okay." He knew his words were either going to calm her down, or make her turn her anger towards him. He was hoping the hug she gave him was sincere, and not her just holding on to him so she could kill him unexpectedly.

* * *

Levy felt bad for Gajeel and kind of guilty, she convinced him to go to the sleepover in the first place, and now he was hurt. She knew the boys getting together without supervision there was a chance they would do something stupid, but she didn't think they would be dumb enough to spy on them. She was pretty mad when she found out, and she was glad to hear Gajeel was trying to stop them instead of joining in. Levy could tell Gajeel was in a really bad moon, and she was hoping it wasn't towards her too. She wanted to stay and make sure Gajeel was alright, Gajeel had a pretty bad fall. At least the other guys managed to fall and in the bushes to break their fall, but Gajeel got the worst of it. If he didn't want her to stay she could always walk back to Lucy's house, it wasn't exactly far, she didn't really want to go home, but she wasn't going to force herself on Gajeel if he wanted to be alone.

Levy left her bag at Lucy's house so she was stuck in the most unflattering pair of pajamas she owned. Her dad bought them for her last Christmas and they were two sizes too big. She had to roll up her sleeves and it always hung off her shoulders but it was like wearing a potato sack. Most of the time she just wore one of Gajeel's stolen shirts to bed, but since she was hanging out with the girls she wanted to covered yet comfortable. She knew her shirt was ruined, she had blood on it from trying to stop Gajeel's bleeding, and there was no way she was going to get it back to its original color. If that wasn't bad enough she was sure she was going to have a fun time getting the grass stains out of her bottoms. She was probably going to have to throw the whole thing away, but she didn't mind it too much. She could always get more pajamas, but she was feeling pretty gross in them right now. Feeling strong arms wrap around her made her feel a lot better, and more self conscious at the same time. "How did it go?"

Gajeel just groaned, the stitches weren't half as bad as being yelled at and smothered in his mothers cleavage at the same time, his mom had a pet peeve about people looking down on her, so everyone in the house had to sit down for their lectures. Gajeel thought he was going to suffocate in there and if he hadn't told her that she was hurting his stitches he probably would have never escaped. He was glad to finally be snuggled up to his shrimp, and he didn't plan on doing anything else the for rest of the weekend. "I would have rather got my ass kicked with those idiots, then deal with my mom any day. If my step-dad wouldn't have pulled her off of me I would have probably been up there all night."

Levy tried not to laugh, she had heard horror stories from Gajeel about what his mom was like, and sometimes when they were on the phone she could hear her yelling at him in the background so Levy already knew she was feisty. "Well, look at the bright side, since you didn't get killed by a mob of angry women, and you've already been yelled at by our angry moms, that means you're free, and I can take care of you for the rest of the night."

"Uh Shrimp, this might be the head wound talking, but I think you meant that in a dirty way. Either way, I could use some mouth to mouth right now."

She just laughed, Gajeel being s pervert meant he was feeling better."You're such an idiot, but okay."

* * *

Something about it being a new day already made everything better. It had only turned midnight a couple minutes ago, but today was already looking a thousand times better than the hell yesterday was. He wasn't even that annoyed having to take a bath instead of a shower, and the meds Lana was nice enough to give him were already kicking in. The real icing on the cake was his incredibly adorable girlfriend sitting across from him in the tub. He was kidding when he invited her to take a bath with him, it was something he said all the time, he never expected her and to show up with her arms crossed over her chest and still in her underwear. He could have teased her about in not being fair that he was naked as the day he was born, and she was doing her best to cover up. But he wasn't going to push her, he could already tell she wasn't exactly comfortable and he didn't really want to add to it. "You're staring." There was just something so cute about how innocent she was, the blush on her cheeks and the fact she wouldn't make eye contact with him was a lot more attractive to him than the way a lot of girls just freely flaunted everything. It was their bodies and if they wanted to show everything off that was their business, but there was something so sexy about knowing that Levy was just for him.

"Yeah, I already told ya, I like looking at you." He didn't admit it, but he was possessive, despite what his friends though he didn't mind waiting forever for Levy if it meant she would be around just as long. Laxus constantly made fun of him, but Gajeel already knew this was the girl he was going to marry, he slipped up and admitted it to Juvia one day and Gajeel thought she short circuited. He didn't know why Juvia asked questions like that if she couldn't handle the answers. Gajeel thought it should have been obvious that he saw a future with Levy, if he didn't he wouldn't be dating her. The fact they hadn't had sex yet didn't change that, he wasn't about to ruin their relationship by being a pervert and trying to convince her to do something she didn't want to do, or break up with her because of it. Gajeel closed his eyes and tilted his head back to stop himself from staring, as much as he liked teasing Levy, the temptation he was feeling right now was real. But he wasn't going to do anything about it unless she wanted him to. "Hey Shrimp, you know, you look good enough to eat."

This is what Levy got for listening to Cana, sure this was the most direct way to get his attention, but now she was feeling just a little bit in over her head. Nervous would be a understatement, and by the way he was staring at her, she definitely got his attention. Between his comment about eating her and the smirk on his face she knew his mind was in the gutter right now, and its where she wanted it to be. She knew she could have tried something else, seducing him in the bathtub was going well, but not as well as she wanted it to go. "This was a lot more romantic in theory." The bathtub was way too cramped with both of them in it, she was sure it was pretty crowded with just Gajeel in here, and even though she didn't take up much room she could barely move.

"Well, there would be a lot more room if you were sitting on me."

* * *

**Warning to the readers, the next chapter is a _lemon_... If that's not your cup of tea, please wait until chapter 32. I don't want to offend anybody! -Chesxca**


	31. Chapter 31

Levy could feel herself pouting, she was really going to give Gajeel a piece of her mind when he came back. One minute he was playing in her hair and holding her, the next minute he got out of bed and left her all alone. If she wasn't feeling so light headed she probably would have followed him, or at least stopped him from going in the first place. She wanted to tell him not to go, but she didn't put up a fight, now she was just laying in bed and missing him. She didn't trust her legs enough to get up and go look for him, her body was still pretty tingly and with her luck she would probably fall on her face. She wasn't too excited about the thought of exposing herself to the cold either so she was just going to have to be the sheets tighter around herself helped her feel warmer, but it wasn't the warmth she was looking for. Sure she always felt pampered when she was laying in his bed, she used to think it was just the silky texture of the sheets that made her feel like one of the princesses in her book. But Gajeel bought her an orange set for her room, and it just wasn't the same. Not unless he was there with her.

She was feeling flirty one time and decided to send him a picture of herself just wrapped in the sheets, the fact he skipped the door and was climbing through her window less than ten minutes later made her actually feel a little bit sexy. She wouldn't admit that though, people always told her how cute she was and it was nice and all, but babies and kittens were cute and she didn't exactly want to be compared to that. It made her think about a conversation she had with Jet, she knew sooner or later one of them was going to ask her what Gajeel had they didn't. And she refused to let him compare himself to Gajeel, it wasn't just some physical attraction that made her like Gajeel. She knew Jet still didn't understand, but telling him from the beginning Gajeel had always treated her in a way no one else had. It was the best answer she could give him, and right now it was just making her feel more lonely. Levy knew she was over reacting, but that didn't stop her from doing so. Gajeel constantly told her how spoiled she was, but it was his fault. He had a hard time telling her no, and sometimes she couldn't help but take advantage of it.

She knew he would be back soon, he couldn't have wandered off too far. It was starting to get pretty chilly outside and he left shirtless and barefoot. She wanted to whine when his sweatpants obstructed her view of the butt she loved so much, there was something about the boxer-briefs he ran around in, they left absolutely nothing to the imagination, and she couldn't help but stare. He always threw a fit if she touched his butt, it was a guy thing she guessed, Lucy said Natsu was the same way. All this waiting wasn't fun, it was leaving her with way too much time to think. She was so tired of over thinking things, and she knew in the morning she was going to be embarrassed about at least half of the things that had happened tonight.

Levy couldn't even describe her nerves when she went to climb in-between his legs, she tried to ignore them, but as clumsy as levy was she was glad Gajeel was there to support her. With her luck she would have slipped and needed stitches herself, and she really didn't want to explain that to her parents. She thought she would be a lot more nervous pulling off her panties once she got comfortable, but there were very few parts of her body that Gajeel had yet to explore, and the bubbles in the tub helped with the whole modesty situation. "That better?" She could still tell Gajeel didn't have much room, he was way too tall for the tub. But she could stretch out comfortably and using his chest as a pillow made her a lot more relaxed. She just hummed in response, Gajeel was thanking his height for the view he had right now, he was trying his best to be patient, but his fingers itched to touch her. "You're cute when you're nervous, you'd be pissed if you knew half of the shit that's been going through my head right now."

There was that pout he loved so much, she even leaned her head back to make sure he knew he was in trouble for that comment. Sure it was a lot more honest than he meant to be, he settled for holding her hand for the time being. "Stupid Gajeel... Don't tease me."He ran his lips across her knuckles, and then planted a kiss on her wrist. It still surprised him how tiny she was compared to him, but they seemed to fit together so well. He loved the way she always squirmed when he ran his lips across her neck, he ran his fingers across her collar bone and down her chest. He would never understand why she was so self conscious about her breast, he loved wrapping his hands around them, even if she always acted all embarrassed when he did it. He knew in this position it would be hard to kiss her the way he wanted to, bath tubs were dangerous, and nothing killed the mood like slipping in one.

"I kinda planned on teasing you all night. "

* * *

As amusing as this whole thing was to him, Laxus was pretty annoyed. He was in the middle of the best kill streak of his life and that was all ruined the minute he picked up his phone. He should have just ignored it, it was two in the morning, he had a hundred excuses as to why he didn't see the text. But if the shoe was on the other foot he knew Gajeel would have came through for him. So here he was at a 24 hour pharmacy walking down the same aisle he had been down a thousand times. He remembered how embarrassed he was the first time he had to buy condoms, he ended up buying a bunch of random stuff with them so he didn't look like a pervert. Now it didn't even phase him, he ignored the giggles from the cashier, she was trying to be flirty, but he just wanted to drop these off and get back to his game. Laxus was trying to decide between giving Gajeel total shit for this, or being a good friend and pretending like this didn't happen. At least he was finally getting laid, Laxus didn't know how much longer he could deal with Gajeel's shitty attitude. The guy was already pretty uptight most of the time, but sexually frustrated Gajeel was a whole different level of annoying. If a couple of stitches was all it took, Laxus would have gladly punched Gajeel in the face weeks ago.

Gajeel had better answer his phone because Laxus wasn't knocking, he drew the line at that. It was bad enough he was turned into an errand boy, he wasn't sticking around longer than he had to. He wouldn't have even gotten put of his car if it was anything else, but he really didn't want to see Gajeel in his pre-sex state longer than he needed to. If he didn't come out in the next five seconds Laxus was just going to sit them in the doorway and go home. Getting caught lurking outside anyone's house at this time of night would make him look like a pervert, lurking outside with a box of condoms was practically criminal. He didn't want to be branded a pervert, there were enough of those tonight. The idiots peeking in on the girls earlier got exactly what they deserved earlier, Laxus didn't even come to their rescue when he found out what they were doing. He wasn't about to be guilty by association, he just made sure no on died and went back to enjoying one of his few days off. Laxus tried his best to be discreet, Gajeel had some really nosy neighbors that constantly called Gajeel's parents anytime they saw them together. They could be doing something as innocent as hosting a book club and the neighbors would freak out about them being too rowdy. Laxus would sooner run home and leave his car here, then face Gia like this. "You idiot, I do you this favor and you leave me waiting out here like some creep."

Laxus was the last person in the world he wanted to deal with right now, but he was out of choices and beggars couldn't be choosers. Gajeel was in no condition to make the run himself, and asking Levy to wait twenty minutes so he could run to store for condoms would have killed the mood before it started. Not to mention he didn't want to go anywhere with a boner. "You're a life saver, I'd hug you but it would get real weird, real quick. Gajeel knew Laxus was going to tease him about this forever. But all of his other options sucked more, if he would have asked his brother or Sting they would have acted five and made a huge scene about leaving the house so they didn't have to hear anything and he didn't need his mom overhearing that conversation. He was pretty sure all of the other idiots were dead by now, and he just didn't trust them with such a task. There was no way in hell he would ever ask such a thing of Juvia, sure they were close, but not that fucking close where he would ask her such a thing. She was a lady, and it just wouldn't feel right. Laxus was his first and last hope and Gajeel just knew this was going to come back and bite him in the ass later, but his lady was waiting and he was sure she was getting impatient by now. "Thanks. I owe you one. Now leave."

Laxus couldn't help but laugh, he appreciated Gajeel went out of his way to hide himself behind the door. Laxus didn't need to know what was going on behind that door, and even though he could only see Gajeel's head he was hoping he at least had pants on. He decided he could always tease Gajeel later, he couldn't wait to tell Mira about this.

* * *

"Are you really pouting right now?" Gajeel probably wouldn't tell her this, but he always loved her like this. She was always so beautiful, but there was just something about her when she was undone. Her hair was always a little on the unruly side, he knew it drove her insane, and she always did her best to tame. But he liked it all over the place. A good portion of it was sticking up all over the place and the rest was hanging in her face. Her cheeks were flushed and it made it a lot more obvious that she was puffing them out in annoyance because he left her. "I was gone for like three minutes Shrimp, five tops." He knew she wasn't really mad, but she was trying her best to keep that annoyed look in her face to punish him. "Well, I'm here now ain't I? That's all that matters. He didn't want to make it super obvious what he left for. She probably already had an idea though, he had been stalling earlier and she even teased him about having cold feet.

"Yeah, but it felt like forever. Plus you're still way over there, so you wont be back yet, until you get over here and kiss me." He couldn't believe she was actually teasing him right now, but he wasn't going to argue with her. He was going to have to remember to move that box of condoms later, he didn't want her to feel pressured so he just had one on his pocket, and bringing a whole box into the bedroom just didn't feel right. He kissed her on the forehead before pressing his lips against hers, he was trying his best to be discreet, stashing it out of sight, but in reach if needed. He couldn't help but still be torn, he didn't want to push things. Gajeel knew he could wait longer if she wanted him to, a certain part of his body didn't agree with him right now. It ached more than it ever had before in his life, and if he didn't give it some sort of attention he thought he was going to die. But having blue balls for months on end could have that sort of effect on you, but he wasn't going to be a pig because of it. Gajeel was going to ignore her warning about if she asked her if she was sure one more time that she was going to punch him, the words were on the tip of his tongue when she kissed him again. "I'm sure... Just don't be weird, or try anything funny, or I'm gonna punch you."

He kissed the same hand she threatened to him with, he knew it was an empty threat, but he couldn't help but tease her about it. "Like you could reach." Levy couldn't help but smile, of course he remembered one of the last things they said to each other before their first kiss. She never expected Gajeel to be nervous about the whole thing, but it a way it made her feel better. It meant he cared, if he didn't they probably would have had sex a long time ago, but now that she was ready, she was getting impatient with the way he kept stalling. "You want the lights on or off?"

"Off."

* * *

Laxus was right, it was different when you were with someone you actually cared about. Most of the time he rolled his eyes and told him to shut up when Laxus gave him unwanted relationship advice. But most of the time Gajeel did listen to him, even if he didn't want to admit it he wanted to better understand what being in a real relationship was like. Even after watching his best friend fall in love from the sidelines and making fun of him for it, he was completely blindsided when it happened to himself. A year ago he wouldn't have imaged being in a relationship, or even chasing a girl for that matter. The girls interested in him were usually just for shallow reasons, it was always just sex, and they would be bored with each other and strangers again by the end of the week. To wake up and go to sleep thinking about the same person everyday was an insane thought. He always thought spending everyday with the same person would get boring, that's what happened with his parents, and he just assumed it was a normal thing so why even try in the first place.

Levy changed all of that, she didn't even mean to. He learned so many things about himself from spending time with her, he tried things he thought he would hate and most of the time he realized it was just all in his head. Even right now, he usually hated this position, it was too personal, romantic and most girls didn't seem to mind being flipped over, most girls looked the same from behind. He always found the eye contact of being face to face awkward, and it honestly killed the mood, but the look on Levy's face was something that was going to be etched into his memory forever. Just rubbing himself against her was driving him insane, the way she lifted her hips in response was making him more impatient than he already was. He was trying to keep things slow for both of their sakes, he didn't want to hurt her and his pride would be wounded in a way he wouldn't recover if he came before he was even inside of her. "You gotta let me know if I'm too rough."

Levy was trying to relax like he told her to, but when he finally slipped inside of her he could tell just how tense she was. She didn't know why all of her friends told her that their first time hurt, sure there was a slight discomfort at first, but she wouldn't exactly say it was painful. The faster he moved, the more amazing it felt, and the way his lips felt on her neck was almost too much for her to handle. She didn't understand what he meant about being rough until her legs were wrapped around his waist, the way he was holding her made him go deeper to the point it was making her eyes tear up. It didn't hurt enough for her to ask him to stop, but her nails digging into his back was a dead give away. He muttered an apology and slowed his pace down before asking her if she was alright, she knew he didn't mean to do it, but there was no way he was supposed to know what she liked and didn't like if she didn't. "It's okay. You can do it how you want to. I'll be fine." Gajeel felt guilty for wanting to take her up on her offer, but he was already close and he didn't want to stop.

She complained at first about it being too embarrassing, but this was the perfect position. She was in control so he couldn't hurt her, not to mention the view he had was nice. He loved the way her breasts bounced with every movement and he could watch her fall apart from here. She was so timid at first and he had to teach her how to roll her hips, but it didn't take long before she could match his movements on her own. He already came, but he wasn't going to stop her, he knew he had a short timeline before things stopped working so his thumb found her clit to help her along. "God, Lev. I love you." It didn't take long before he felt her tighten around him and he had never heard his name said so sweetly before.

As much as he didn't want to move, he knew he needed to take care of things before he had other problems. Nobody ever talked about this part of sex, you always ended up gross and sweaty, condoms had to be thrown away and someone ended up laying in a wet spot. It was his first time dealing with that problem in his own bed, but it was big enough for both of them to sleep together on the other side. Levy was already fast asleep and he couldn't wait to join her, it was already three in the morning. If he loved her or not wasn't even a question anymore, it was just a matter of trying to find a proper way to tell her.

Maybe he'd write her a song.


	32. Chapter 32

Getting text messages first thing in the morning was rarely a good thing, Gajeel usually ignored them until the last minute hoping to delay whatever headache couldn't be avoided until a decent time of day. The exception to that of course was Levy, her messages were always really cute and usually from the night before and he just fell asleep before he could reply. But she was still fast asleep next to him so he figured at least one of the four messages he received was going to be annoying. The first one was from Rogue, that wasn't surprising, his brother texted him constantly. Sometimes it was random pictures he pulled off of tumblr, other times it was asking for advice. His brother looked up to him, and even though they annoyed each other to no end they were pretty close, the first message Rogue sent him was from the night before. It was just asking him if he was feeling okay and if he needed anything, Rogue always turned into a big baby anytime Gajeel got hurt, it was something left over from childhood. Gajeel couldn't even count the number of times he got into fights for sticking up for his brother, it never bothered Gajeel if he got hurt in the process. No one was going to treat his brother like shit and get away with it, and Gajeel only knew one way to make sure he got his point across.

The second one was from his baby sister, a few years after his father remarried Gajeel learned that he was gaining another sibling. He wasn't all that excited at first, for the longest time he felt like his father abandoned him, and the fact he was having another kid just made him think he was being replaced. He flat out refused to go meet his baby sister when she was born. Something he regretted now that he was older, he didn't want another sibling Rogue was annoying enough, the fact his new sibling was a girl made him even less interested in her. It wasn't until her first Christmas did they finally meet, Wendy was eight months old and stole Gajeel's heart the minute she met him. He loved her instantly and from that moment on he just wanted to protect her, he would freak out whenever she got hurt and was excited for every milestone of her life. He was even the one who taught her how to swing, to ride her bike and even though it was against his step-moms wishes, he taught her how to defend herself. Grandeeney was pissed when she found out Gajeel taught Wendy how to fight, that is until she was getting bullied at school and she ended up kicking the guys ass.

Wendy was just so good and sweet that Gajeel didn't know how she could be related to him or his father with how bad their tempers was. As much as he hated flying he still did it a couple times a year just to spend time with her, he took pride in the fact he hadn't missed a birthday, and went as far as making her skype him on the Christmases he wasn't there for just so he could watch her open her presents. One year Wendy got the best present she could ask for, and Gajeel didn't even know he was responsible for it. He took Lily with him everywhere, and he didn't even notice the fact that his cat had been romancing Grandeeney's white cat Shagotte, a few months later Wendy's kitten Carla was born along with five other kittens that looked just like Lily. Lily got himself banned from their house for a while, but Gajeel learned to keep a better eye on him to avoid anymore grand kittens. Wendy's message was just her telling him not to get hurt anymore and that she loved and missed him, he just talked to her a few days ago, but he was going to make it a point to call her later, just to let her know that he was okay.

Gajeel was right about the next one, it was pretty fucking annoying. The message was from Laxus, so it was bound to be of an annoying nature no matter what it said. "Congratulations on the sex!" wasn't exactly what he was expecting, but it definitely made him laugh. He asked Laxus for the favor of the year last night, and he knew he was going to catch shit forever for it. What made the message so much more amusing was Laxus's use of emoji's, he had never seen Laxus use anything but threatening ones in his life. But this message was full of perverted and celebratory ones.

Surprisingly enough the last message he got this morning was from his mom, she wasn't really that good when it came to that sort of thing. She wasn't tech savvy and she preferred to talk in person. She thought that texting was in-personal and she always complained about the way young people were glued to their phones all the time. His mom didn't even jump on the new phone fad, she had the same one for the last five years, and as long as it still dialed she didn't plan on getting a new one. The only other times he got a text message from his mother was when he neglected to answer the phone and it was something important."If you're not up by noon, I'm going to assume that you're dying and you need my help." He wondered how long it took her to text that, she worried too much, it was just a couple stitches. But he knew better to think she was bluffing, his mom would run down here in a minute and try to nurse him back to health so he knew he was going to have to show his face. It was only ten minutes until noon, so he didn't have time to shower, and he really didn't feel like finding a way to do it without getting his stitches wet. He didn't want to put on pants, but he knew better that. The last time he went upstairs in his underwear his mom threatened to start walking around the same way and there just wasn't enough therapy in the world for that.

He was doing his best to make it up the stairs quietly, if things worked out like he wanted them to, he would be back downstairs cuddling her long before she woke up. Lily was waiting for him at the door, which meant he realized Gajeel had left and came looking for him, it wasn't until he got home from the hospital that he even realized he left his poor little buddy in the clutches of the others last night. He knew his cat could take care of himself, Lily constantly found ways to sneak out of his house and he always came home when he wanted to. Without fail every time they spent the night at Laxus's house together things would get too loud and Lily would run home on him, the first couple times Gajeel freaked out until his mom called him, and now he just expected it to happened. Gajeel felt a little guilty that he got locked out of his room all night, but there was some things a cat shouldn't be around for and nothing about last night was cat friendly. It wasn't the first time Lily had the spend the night with Frosch, the little cat followed him around often and it wasn't too surprising to find them both in his bed when he got home. A few times a week he would even find a third cat hanging out in his room, Sting's kitten Lector wasn't as playful as Frosch but he was definitely mischievous.

At least Lily wasn't too mad at him, the was rubbing up against his ankles and didn't give him any trouble when he went to pick him up. He was glad he put a shirt on, Lily had a habit of digging his claws into his chest to climb up on his shoulder, and if his claws weren't trimmed Gajeel ended up with more than just a little scratch. "That's where he went, Lil was hanging out with me all morning and he just up and abandoned me the minute he heard you." Gajeel was glad that his mom was in a way better mood this morning, he was glad she got all her nagging out last night, he didn't want to wake up to getting an ear full all over again. Gajeel knew something was up, his mom was just a little too smiley, and the fact she was waiting for him made him a little more suspicious. "Are you feeling better sweetie? Sit down and let me take a look at her head." She was way too protective when it came to him, but there was no use in fighting her about it. Gajeel learned the hard way a long time ago that if it gave his mom peace of mind, he was better off letting her do what she wanted.

Gajeel loved his mom, but the reason they fought so much was the fact she would never stop treating him like he was a child, if he let her, his mother would baby him. The same way she babied Rogue, Rogue told their mother everything, after all the trouble she had with Gajeel over the years she decided to have an open honesty policy in the house. Gajeel didn't believe that shit for a minute, he always saw it as telling on himself, but when he did something and his mother found out after the fact he usually regretted it. Rogue just came out and told her, and she was usually pretty okay with it, and Gajeel completely didn't think it was fair. Gajeel got grounded for a month the first time he caught drinking underage, Rogue on the other hand had a ride to and from the party the first time he did it, and Gajeel was pretty pissed about it. She eventually stopped punishing Gajeel for his secrets, and it was mostly because he got better at hiding things, but every once in a while she would find out something and be disappointed, but she would just sit him down and talk about it instead of trying to control him. "So, tell me about this girl friend of yours."

* * *

So much for getting back to his Shrimp anytime soon, everything about this conversation was painful, it was like his mom was an expert at embarrassing him and he was just going to have to sit through this whole thing until it was over. If Levy wasn't downstairs he would have made a run for it, but he couldn't just leave her in the clutches of his mom, Gajeel was used to her embarrassing the shit out of him, Levy would probably die from his mothers treatment. Right now his mom was in the middle of giving him the talk, and it wasn't the same safe one she gave him when he was twelve. Twelve year old Gajeel was pretty mortified during that talk too, he remembered not being able to look his mom in the face for the better part of the week, and then his dad gave him the same talk over the phone. His version of the talk was telling Gajeel he would probably never get laid, but if he did it was going to be the best ten seconds of his life. He would have killed for either of those talks right now, this one was fucking brutal and he couldn't wait for it to be over. The minute he heard his mother say "pull out method" he died on the inside, he was trying his best to drown her out, but he internally lost his shit when she started talking about how he was born. "If ya don't stop talking bout that I'm gonna puke."

Gia couldn't help but laugh at him, she knew Gajeel was uncomfortable, but she was making up for lost time. Since she started talking to him he wouldn't even look at her, and the light blush on his cheeks were so out of character for him that she couldn't help but get a little carried away. "I'm sorry, I got a little carried away. Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to get a girlfriend?" Gia knew when she was being ignored, all she could get from him was the occasional grumble and the only information she was able to get out of him was that the girl actually existed. "You know Gajeel I was starting to think you didn't even like girls, Juvia's a pretty girl and you've never paid attention to her, and you refused to let me set you up with anyone. I mean you do spend a lot of time with Laxus, so I just thought it was a matter of time before you two got together."

"The fuck did you just say?!" Suddenly he felt like a dick for every joke he's made about Sting and Rogue being a couple, it just wasn't fun being on the other side of that, even if the other person was joking. "Just cause I didn't wanna date any of them crazy girls you thought I was gay. Would ya rather I bring a bunch of shitty girls you don't like home? You would have chased them off anyway, so stop giving me shit." He knew his mom was just teasing, it was one of the few things his parents had in common, they loved having fun at his expense. It was probably why he had a sick sense of humor himself, he loved teasing other people but he hated getting it himself. "She's special okay, can we just drop it before things get a mushy and shit?" Where was help when you needed it? Now would be a good time for Rogue to break something, or one of the cats to start climbing up the curtains. Anything to distract his mom long enough for him to get away. His prayers were finally answered when Skiadrum showed up. He was always the voice of reason, Gajeel just had to agree to bring Levy home for dinner next week. Gajeel was going to have to thank him later, he was two seconds from gnawing his own arm off. That whole conversation was exhausting and he couldn't wait to go back to bed.


	33. Chapter 33

She had been cuddled up to Gajeel for the past hour trying to read, this was probably the first time in Levy's life that she wasn't interested in a book, it wasn't even a bad book either. The story was great, the characters were well put together. It had plenty of twists and turns, and it was by one of her favorite authors. But unfortunately for her she was just way too distracted to enjoy the book properly. Her friends were to blame here, it all started at the sleepover, she knew Cana asked the question as a joke. But since then Levy had been really curious about it and she was kind of annoyed that she still didn't know. Levy knew if she just came out and asked him, Gajeel would have a field day teasing her. She already had enough of that from Lucy on the subject and wasn't looking forward to round two on the matter. Gajeel was the only one that she had been with, so there wasn't exactly a way for to know the difference, the whole thing was giving her a headache. But she was pretty sure it wouldn't be hard to ask him without really asking. And if that didn't work in her favor she wouldn't mind doing what she had to to get his clothes off.

From the way she was laying on his chest she had to peek up to see what he was doing, he had been playing some game Laxus loaned him on the Vita for the past few days and whenever Gajeel with a new game was like her with a new book. There were so many times she talked him into something he probably wouldn't want to do just because he wanted her out of his hair. She was going to test the waters first, just casually ask him to do something he usually hated just to see what his answer was. "Hey Gajeel... Juvia wants to know if we want to go on a double date with her and Gray to the aquarium next week, what should I tell her?" Normally Gajeel would have gave her a really annoyed look and said fuck no. He hated going on group dates and one of them usually ended up comforting Juvia when Gray started acting on the cold side. One time they went to see a sad movie together, and Juvia cried so much that Gajeel had to go buy himself a new shirt, somehow Gray lost his in-between the car and his seat so she ended up crying all over Gajeel.

"Yeah, Shrimp sounds great." Okay she knew he wasn't listening! Gajeel liked to go out sometimes, but they both preferred hanging out at home more. They had an impressive stash of snacks, and they couldn't even count the number of hours they spent watching Netflix in their pajamas. Levy was able to read as much as she wanted without anyone bothering her and she loved watching Gajeel being completely absorbed in one of his many hobbies. Recently she started visiting him at work and she wouldn't admit the twinge of jealously she felt when she noticed she wasn't the only one drooling while watching him work out. Levy made lots of jokes when she realized just how popular he was with the middle aged women. She just happened to go for a run next to them on a treadmill one day, and she heard some very detailed fantasies that they had about him and she was too embarrassed to even repeat them to him.

Okay, since he was distracted she was sure she could slide this one past him without him noticing, it had been bothering her for a while and she knew it was now or never. "Hey Gajeel... Do you have any piercings I don't know about?" She tried to keep her tone casual, if she sounded embarrassed when she asked him it would probably get his attention. She could still her feel her cheeks warm out when she asked him, it was a pretty perverted question. She didn't just want to just come out and say that she was curious about if he had any special piercings that she had yet to see.

Gajeel laughed, sometimes his Shrimp was just a little too curious, but he wasn't about to let her get away with asking him a question half assed like that. "Is that your sneaky ass Shrimp way of asking me if my dicks pierced?" With the way her cheeks lit up, he knew he saw right through her question. She had been squirming next to him ever since they got home and he knew something was bothering her, he just didn't know what. He was relieved to find out that it wasn't something serious, and the icing on the cake was the fact it was hilarious too. She was just so cute all the time that he couldn't help but tease her, she either got really embarrassed and it was cute, or she got mad and that was just a whole new level of cute. He always got himself in trouble when Levy was mad, she would be trying to be serious and he was just thinking about kissing a smile back on to her face.

"Nobody was thinking about that stupid Gajeel, you just wanted to bring your dick up in conversation." Levy tried to put on her best annoyed face, but she knew he wasn't buying it. She didn't want to add fuel to the fire that she already started, but she knew the damage was done. Even though they had already been intimate she still had a million questions about things, she wished he would have just answered this one without the teasing.

"Okay shrimp, then I don't have a reason to answer that question one way or the other." Levy sighed, well that didn't work out how she wanted, she didn't know why she expected him to just come out and tell her. A simple yes or no was all she wanted and now she was just going to have to find out the hard way. He was back into his game, and probably wouldn't notice what she was doing until it was too late, she was kind of glad he was in pajama pants because she was going to have to be quick to get this done. She wasn't sure how Gajeel was going to react, but the suspense was killing her, and she would just deal with the consequences later. She built up her courage and stuffed her hand under his waistband.

"For fucks sake Shrimp! You can't just be grab assing down there!" Levy shoving her cold hand down his pants definitely caught him off guard. He ended up dropping his vita on his face and the sound he made wasn't exactly manly. He grabbed Levy before she could make a run for it, there was no way in hell he was letting her get away with that. Levy tried to slip out of his reach, she knew he was going to want revenge, but at least she had an answer to his question. Grabbing a hand full of Gajeel didn't embarrass her as much as she thought it would, she took Cana's advice when she said just do it, it's not going to bite you or anything. He was warm in her hand, and the way he reacted let her know he liked the way she grabbed him. "Really? If I did some shit like that I would've got hit and called a pervert." Levy laughed, Gajeel was trying to be mad, but he just seemed more flustered than anything.

"Sorry?" Her giggling made him think her apology was less than sincere, he wasn't sure what had gotten into her lately but if she kept it up he couldn't guarantee how well she was going to be able to walk in the near future. Gajeel was trying his best to be patient, as much as he wanted to jump Levy all the time he was doing his best not to. He was always so tempted to see that look on her face again, but he didn't want to be one of those perverts who pressured her into doing something just because it happened once. He had his arms wrapped around her waist, he pulled her into his lap so she was straddling him when she tried to escape, but it was really hard to scold her with that cute smile on her face. She was proud of herself, he constantly doing things to tease her, and she managed to get him back. It was hard to take her apology seriously when she was still laughing. Gajeel was a patient man, but Levy was just begging to be punished. "Awh Gajeel you're just so cute when you're embarrassed."

He raised an eyebrow at that cute comment, he had to constantly remind her that there was nothing cute about him. The only things in his life that even came to close to earning that title was Lily who was still pretty manly in a cat way. He had a scar and could kick any other cats ass, but he was pretty adorable whenever he saw some kiwi or when there was a laser pointer around. Levy was the other, she was the walking definition of the word. It was fun watching her struggle, he had both of her hands pinned over her head and he was thinking about using his free one to visit all of her ticklish spots. "You know Levy, if you wanted some attention that bad, you should have said so. Fuck the game, I'd rather play with you anyway."

* * *

He never failed to make her blush, most of the time he didn't even realize what he was saying was romantic, but every once in a while he would just hold her close and whisper all the right things in her ear in-between kisses and it would just make her melt. Right now the whole situation was pretty embarrassing, Gajeel had the nerve to tie her to the bed with her own headband, and she could only imagine what he was going to do next. "What's wrong Shrimp? You were fine a minute ago, now you're all flustered." She knew she should have changed out of her school uniform when she got to Gajeel's house, but she was feeling lazy earlier. Gajeel was always commenting on how short it was, it was pretty common for him to lift it up to get a peek at what panties she was wearing, which she didn't mind too much unless he did it in public. She was wearing black tights today, which she could currently feel being pulled off of her. She knew she had embarrassing panties on, and it was only a matter of time before commenting on them.

Gajeel couldn't help but laugh at her struggling, every time she pulled one of her wrists, the knot would get tighter and he knew there was no way she was getting out of that one. Suffering through so many years of boy scouts finally paid off for him, he was pretty proud of himself at the moment, he had her right where he wanted her and watching the color of her face change when she realized what he was doing was great. There were few things he liked as much as undressing her, and stealing her panties just got a lot more amusing when he read they saying on the back. "Really Lev?" He was used of her underwear having cute sayings on them, or cartoon characters or even the occasional pair that came right off the Victorias secret display, but these ones were so unlike Levy. They were dirty, and he couldn't wait to hear the story behind them. "Where should I start Shrimp, Since were copping free feels and what not, not to mention your panties are giving me an idea or two."

"Give them back! They were a gift from Cana, and its laundry day. You were never supposed to see those ones." Great her panties made her look like a pervert, even though they were a gag gift she knew she shouldn't have been walking around in panties that said "It's not going to lick itself." It was her first time wearing them, she would be mortified if her parents saw that she owned panties like these, so they were hidden in the back of her underwear drawer. Gajeel gave her a smirk that let her know she wasn't going to be getting them back that easily, he stuffed them in his pocket. She could feel his hands start to roam over her thighs and she finally realized just how exposed she was pushed her legs together. "Gajeel stop being a pervert, were supposed to have dinner with your parents in an hour." This was one way she didn't want to meet his mother, half naked and tied to his bed. She would never be able to show her face again and Gajeel would just brush it off like nothing happened. "Plus we can't do that type of stuff in front of Lily."

Oh so now she was shy, Levy had been giving him shit all week, and he was doing his best to behave himself. Her school uniform didn't help things at all wearing a skirt that short shouldn't have been legal, and the fact she sat on his lap every chance she got caused problems. Not to mention she was always squirming for one reason or another Not to mention she was always squirming for one reason or another. Every time they kissed she would grind against him, it was subtle, but was always sporting a bad case of blue balls by the time he took her home. Gajeel definitely had issues, because even when Levy was up to no good she always looked sweet and innocent when she was doing. He didn't have a school girl fetish before, but now he was developing one. The way her too big school sweater hung off her shoulder looked cute on her, and he she never had her white button up tucked in so it made the short black skirt look even shorter. He always gave her the benefit of the doubt on her perversion, but sometimes he just had to teach her a lesson, that's why the underwear she was wearing a minute ago, we're now stuffed in his pocket. "Give what back? I don't need to hear you complaining later about how dirty I got your panties, so I'm gonna hold onto them for safe keeping."

Gajeel rolled his eyes, of course the damn cat was here. If there was an opportunity to cock block him, Lily was all over it, he looked over his shoulder at the cat in question and Lily was giving him an annoyed look back. He knew he was going to pay for it later, but it was the quickest way to get rid of Lily "Hey Lily its time to go to the vet." He didn't even see him move, there was just a black blur that flew across the room followed by the sound of the cat door being ran through. "Don't worry Levy, you wont be lasting that long. We'll make it to dinner with time to spare."


	34. Chapter 34

As much as Gajeel loved his little brother, sometimes he really really wished that he was an only child. Wendy could stay though, she was innocent it this, she never took his stuff without asking. Or got herself and trouble and expected him to bail her out, if she did he would be there in a heart beat. Didn't matter if he had to hop on a flight or drive all night. He would always be there for Wendy, just like he was always there for Rogue, the only difference was that Rogue just annoyed the shit out of him. Rogue's newest favorite pass time seemed to be cock blocking Gajeel like it was his damn job. Gajeel knew he wasn't doing it on purpose, if his brother thought for a second any type of sexy time was going on between him and Levy Rogue would completely evacuate the premises. Rogue even awkwardly told him one time that if him and Levy wanted alone time just give him a heads up and he would just leave. It was a nice gesture, but Gajeel wasn't about to announce it to his brother every time he was trying to get laid. One it was weird, and two Levy would never forgive him if she found out he was announcing something like that.

Gajeel was so pissed at his brother earlier that he accidentally called him Ryos when he told him to get the fuck out of his room, that of course pissed Rogue off a lot. Only their mom still called him by his first name, he had been going by his middle name since he was a brat. Not many people knew his that Rogue wasn't his first name and Rogue liked it that. He went as far as correcting all of his teachers on the first day of school to make sure no one found out. He'd apologize about it later, the two of them fighting wasn't something new, it was pretty much brother for I love you. They constantly fought, and pissed each other off without even trying to, Gajeel could deal with it just fine. What wasn't fine was his extremely grumpy girlfriend who was far less than ecstatic when Rogue decided to walk in while she was still tied to the bedpost. Things were just getting good when Rogue decided to do his famous I'm going to knock but come in before you answer thing. Thankfully Rogue didn't see anything, but of course it was Gajeel's fault for nor locking the door. To say the mood was killed was a hell of an understatement.

Gajeel really didn't want to untie her, he had a feeling she was going to hit him the minute she got free. But keeping her tied up until she calmed down was out of the question. She was just going to get even more pissed and he would more than likely pay for it later, they had less than an hour to meet his parents downtown and that was at least a fifteen minute drive. They still both needed a shower, and he really needed to do something about the current problem he had in his pants. "I guess since you're just going to sit there moping, I'm going to have to take a shower all by myself. Stupid Gajeel, making me be lonely." He could tell the pout on her face was just for show, apparently the mood wasn't as killed as he thought it was. He didn't need a second invitation to follow behind her, he was going to make sure he locked the bathroom door though.

* * *

They were going to be late, and it wasn't entirely his fault that they were. They left the house at a decent time, but traffic downtown was just stupid this time of day. Gajeel would have preferred just having dinner at home, it would have saved him money, and he could have cooked whatever he wanted, and had a decent escape plan. But his mom looked for any and every reason to get all dressed up, and she really wanted to impress Levy. His mom was over reacting about this whole thing, he told his mom Levy would probably prefer meeting her in a more traditional setting, she insisted on a fancy restaurant for the occasion. He was pretty sure his parents were stuck in traffic too, they were already ten minutes late and if his mom was there she would have called him after the first minute to make sure he wasn't dead. It was nice enough to take his bike, but it would have been way too uncomfortable to ride in the stupid suit he was in, his mom even made it a point to buy him a new tie he didn't want for the occasion and it was currently choking him a little bit.

On the plus side Levy seemed a lot less angry now, her small fingers were laced through his and her thumb was stroking the back of his hand, it was a habit they both had whenever they drove anywhere together. It didn't matter if they were just going around the corner, or on an extended trip to find a rare book Levy wanted. He always found himself touching her, and the hand holding started because his hands always seemed to wander on their own. He would always start by touching her knee or her thigh, and her mood determined how soon he would start running his hand up and down her thigh. By the time his hand made it to the hem of whatever she was wearing she would catch on to what he was doing and grab his hand to make sure it didn't wander. When he first started doing it, she would scold him for being a pervert and tell him not to do things like that in public. Now she just scolded him for doing things like that while he was driving.

Her nails were a pretty metallic gray color, and she only painted her nails when she was nervous. He knew her toes had the same colorful treatment and it was really the only type of make up she liked to wear. She was already beautiful, even when she didn't think she was. He loved her messy hair in the morning and the way she looked at him even when she was angry. Traffic was pretty much a parking lot so he had time to stare at her when she wasn't looking like he always did. She had no reason to be nervous, his parents were going to love her. If anything his mother was going to try to push them down the aisle the minute she found out just how amazing Levy was. If anything Gajeel should have been the nervous one, his mom had a way of embarrassing him without even trying to, she always mentioned really personal things at the worse times. She just didn't have a filter, and he was glad that his step dad was there to play referee.

* * *

Levy was glad for Gajeel's advice to take a deep breathe before his mom hugged her, if she didn't she probably would have passed out from being smothered in the woman's cleavage. When her and Gajeel's relationship first started to get physical she was pretty self conscious and it made her feel a little better when Gajeel admitted he wasn't really into big boobs, because he had been suffocated in his moms his whole life. Levy completely understood why he was so traumatized now, she was used to being around her friends who had pretty big ones, but being suffocated by some was a new experience. "Oh you're just so cute, Gajeel look how pretty she is!" Just when Levy was relieved to be able to breathe again she was pulled back in for another hug, she was glad when Gajeel spoke up and saved her from certain death. His mom was really affectionate, and Gajeel was lucky he was tall enough for his hug to be less breathe taking.

She never expected Gajeel to look just like his mom, but him and Rogue looked alike too so she guessed she shouldn't have been too surprised. She had the same red eyes she was always so curious about, and dark hair but it was even longer than his. Hers reached her lower back and looked like it was made of silk, she was gorgeous and even had the same high cheek bones as Gajeel. Her make up was perfect, Levy didn't think she could ever pull off a red lip. Every time she wore make up she felt like she was playing dress up. Gajeel's mom just looked sophisticated, and like she belonged in a magazine. She watched Gajeel make a face when his mom went to fix his tie, she tried to mess with his hair but he pulled away with a roll of his eyes.

Levy had met Gajeel's step father once before, he was very sweet man. When ever Gajeel talked about him it was only good things and it made her wonder what his real father was like. Every time Levy asked about him he would just say that he was a dick and dropped the conversation. She knew they weren't on the greatest terms but he still went to visit him a couple times a year. She knew Gajeel's dad remarried and now he had a younger sister and a step mom that she had yet to meet. Gajeel always told her that Skiadrum stepped in the minute Metalicana stepped out and he was lucky to have a step dad who loved him like he was his own. She was pretty nervous about meeting his parents, especially since Gajeel and her dad didn't get started on the right foot. Gajeel told her that his mom could be a little on the overbearing side but she had nothing to be worried about. But now that she was here she was worried that they weren't going to like her.

* * *

Gajeel was sweating, he just knew his mom was itching to say something fatally embarrassing, all of Gajeel's hard work to make Levy think he was cool could be ruined in five minutes if his mom opened her mouth. He knew he should have checked the den this morning to make sure his baby book was where it was supposed to be and not in her purse or something like that. He was trying his best not to watch Levy, but she was always so cute when she talked about something she loved, and she looked amazing in that dress. If his mom noticed him staring at her like a love sick puppy she was sure to point it out and tease him about it, so he was trying not to make it obvious. But not paying attention to the conversation made his mind wander and currently he was remembering in detail the fun filled shower he had not to long ago.

The last thing he wanted to do is have sexy thoughts right now, but the scratch marks on his back were still fresh and they stung every time he moved. She was so tiny, so it took almost no effort to pick her up to kiss her, he was more worried about slipping and killing them both in the process than dropping her. She made an empty threat about killing him if he did, but he had no plans on letting the mood be killed a second time today. He had been trying his best not to be a giant pervert and try to sleep with her every time the thought passed his mind. But when he finally gave into temptation, the waiting was definitely worth it. Her kisses were always so sweet, and the way her fingers always tangled themselves in his hair drove him insane. He loved to get a strong grip on her thighs when he made love to her. But he never held on hard enough to bruise, having her legs wrapped around his head earlier was a sensation that he couldn't wait to revisit, and making her squirm was definitely his favorite thing in the world. The way her nails always dragged down his back when he was rough with her always sent him over the edge. If it wasn't for the fact his mother was within ten feet of him, he was sure he would have a problem after having thoughts like that. He knew he needed to try to think about something else for the time being, and he happened to start listening to the conversation again just when his mother offered to show Levy his baby pictures. "Woman don't you dare!"

Levy giggled at his reaction, and Gajeel could feel himself blush just thinking about her seeing something like that. He knew he was overreacting, he had already seen, made fun of and asked for copies of Levy's super adorable baby pictures. But she wasn't naked in any of hers, Gajeel's mom had taken all of the cliche pictures of him as a kid. She even had a picture of him covered in spaghetti in her wallet that she showed everyone. There was one from his first Halloween where he was dressed up like a little dragon. He was frowning in it his face was covered in candy. He sighed when he heard Levy awe at whatever his mom handed him, of course it was the one of little him hugged up to his new born brother. His mom loved showing that one to people, she said it was the first and last time the two of them hugged so it was really close to her heart. "He's always had that little frown on his face, he was a little grumpy brat growing up. Now he's a tall one."

Gia knew Gajeel hated when she teased him, but he needed to lighten up sometime. She thought Levy was absolutely adorable and she could already see why Gajeel wanted to be with her. She was trying to be on her best behavior, so she was currently ignoring the longing looks they were giving each other, or that they were holding hands under the table. She tried not to laugh at the fact Levy was eating off of Gajeel's plate and he seemed to be perfectly fine with it. Anyone else would have gotten stabbed for doing something like that, but Gajeel seemed unfazed by it. She was surprised when Gajeel admitted his new girlfriend wasn't really all that new, they had been dating for months already and she was completely clueless. She had noticed a change in Gajeel's behavior lately but she never would have thought it was because he met a girl.

Her husband guessed it months ago, when Gajeel's grades suddenly improved, he was already a good student, but when he came home with straight A's he knew something was up. She thought it was strange Gajeel was always going to the library, but she thought it was just a cover for something else. Turns out a young librarian caught his eye and he hadn't been in trouble since. The more she learned about Levy the more she loved her, she was going to scold her son later for hiding her for so long. Gia never thought she would see her son in love, but it was so obvious that he was that she was sure she would be planning a wedding in the near future. "I don't like that look your face." She couldn't help but giggle, Gajeel caught her and he already knew what she was thinking. "Would ya finish your dinner and stop naming your grand kids." She knew she had a guilty smile on her face but she couldn't help it, she had been waiting forever for Gajeel to bring a girl home to her, and obvious it was well worth the wait.

"Fine."


	35. Chapter 35

Sometimes Gajeel really hated being the oldest, a lot of his friends were a few years younger than him with the exception of Laxus of course and sometimes it felt like he was babysitting. He could always deal with Laxus and all of his snide remarks and teasing when it came down to it he was a real bro and he always knew when to tone it down and act like a grown up in public... Unlike these two idiots, it was common knowledge that you pretty much should never take Natsu fucking anywhere you want to show your face at again. But here he was, with said pink haired idiot trying to sneak snacks into his shopping cart. He was just like a little kid, touching everything, reading all the signs stealing all the coupons and to make matters worse he was holding onto Gajeel's shopping cart and making it unnecessarily hard to steer, Gajeel was annoyed but he preferred this than him wandering off and knocking over a whole display or something.

As if that wasn't bad enough on the other side of his cart was Juvia's pervert who had already somehow lost half of his clothing on the ride here. They were having a movie night, it had been a while since they all got together and that ended with him in the emergency room getting his face sown back together. Trailing behind them was Erza's boy toy. He didn't say much, but Gajeel preferred that over him saying something stupid. He knew him coming to the store was a sure thing, levy already asked him the day before and he planned on going right after work. He ended up coming straight to Levy's house for a shower because he hated going places gross and sweaty and now he was wishing he would have just dealt with it. Jellal was the only other person old enough to buy alcohol. But he left his car and Erza's so Gajeel was stuck with the errand. There were originally only five things on his list but levy sent him a text telling him she needed lady things and there was no way in hell he was taking Natsu down that aisle. "Can you baby-sit these idiots and grab some pizza without burning down the damn store?" Jellal gave him a pained look that was pretty much a "please don't leave me alone with them" but Gajeel was already on his way to the woman aisle.

Gajeel pretty much figured out it was Levy's lady time long before she said anything. Her having a back ache and wanted to be babied constantly was pretty much a giant be nice to her flag. She sent him a picture of the box she wanted but it still took him a long time to find the right thing and stare at it to make sure he wasn't fucking up. Knowing her he decided to stop by the bakery for ice cream cupcakes because he was sure she was craving something sweet right now. Gajeel wasn't a fancy drinker he was pretty content with just beer and it was only on occasion that he drank the hard stuff. The girls were already half way through a bottle of wine when he left for the store and Erza wanted some overly fancy girly drink that sparkled and shit. Bunny girl wanted to make hard root beer floats or something and it just sounded like a stomach ache to him. He didn't understand why the girls had to do all these fancy things to their drinks when simple beer could get them just as drunk without the mess. But if fancy booze made them happy there was no point in upsetting a bunch of women.

It wasn't hard to find the idiots he left in charge of pizza, all he had to do is walk towards the yelling and hope that their fight hadn't gotten physical yet. He felt bad for leaving poor Jellal in charge of the two of them, he was trying his best to break them up but all Natsu and Gray had to do is breathe each others air and they ended up fighting. "I'm sure Erza's gonna love wringing your necks when you break her boyfriend." Both boys paled at the thought of a pissed of Erza and Jellal let out a sigh of relief when the two suddenly turned into best friends. Gajeel did his best to ignore the fact his shopping cart was a lot fuller than it was when he left. He was only gone for five minute and there was a bunch of weird spicy food and various ice creams in there. He was too tired to fight about it so he just rolled his eyes and headed to the checkout. "I'm making you idiots pay me back for anything that I didn't pick up, so you have five seconds to put it back. And if you break anything I'm leaving you."

Gajeel really did hate babysitting.

* * *

Levy was in such a good mood, she just couldn't stop giggling. It must have been the wine she was drinking, Erza brought a bottle over with her earlier and thy had already went through the whole thing. Even though she wasn't the best cook she was trying to be a good hostess and ended up cutting up snacks for her guests, her older cousin had come to visit for the next few weeks and he just so happened to be dating Erza so Levy thought it was a good idea to invite a few people over. She knew it was short notice so not everyone could come but she was pretty happy with the small turn out and the fact Gajeel was being so helpful. She loved watching him cook even though it was just frozen pizza, Gajeel had to do his own take on everything so she was sure it was going to turn out a lot better than it usually was. She thought it was cute that they were wearing his and hers aprons even though they belonged to her parents, she wasn't good at cooking so it was rare that she was in the kitchen but Gajeel always loved to pull her in and have her help him make the meals even if it was something as simple as stirring things and cutting them up.

Lucy was in her dining room with Natsu making drinks and she could vaguely hear her telling him that he wasn't allowed to put hot sauce in anything. Juvia just seemed happy to be cuddled up to Gray, and he was trying to pick a movie that they could all agree on, but Natsu kept turning down all of his suggestions from the other room. Erza usually jumped in the minute she heard Natsu and Gray arguing, but she seemed way too occupied just being near Jellal. They had been dating for a few years but they rarely saw each other, so when they got together it was special. If Levy had to she would be putting the boys in their place the whole night, she didn't want to ruin things for Erza, but those two usually got so heated around each other that they didn't pay attention to anything else. "Hey Gajeel." He just hummed when he heard his name, it was hard to get his attention while he was cooking but she was sure he would be excited about this. "If Natsu and Gray get too crazy or break anything, will you take them outside and beat them up? I'll be really mad if they ruin tonight."

She could tell Gajeel was trying to hide his excitement at her request, but his laugh gave him away. "Anything you want Lev, just say the word and I'll murder them."

* * *

Gajeel couldn't help but be extremely amused right now, his shrimp was drunk, and not the cute I'm kind of tipsy drunk either. The I'm drunk off my ass and can't stop giggling drunk. Something about Bunny girl and her bar tending girly drinks had all of the girls drunk in no time and things turned into a mess almost instantly. At least Levy was a happy drunk, she thought everything was funny and she just wanted to hug someone and laugh at the littlest thing. He had been around a drunk Juvia more times than he could count and it was just tears and whining about every little thing to the point he started calling her a water woman. He knew he shouldn't have let Levy drink as much as she did. Last time was a disaster that ended with his room being destroyed and him fighting off Levy's sexual advances. But Cana was the culprit behind all of that, and he wasn't sure levy even remembered that night. Like usual Juvia was the first one to get drunk to the point that she started acting crazy, and Gajeel was glad that Gray was the one stuck taking care of her instead of him this time. After her third breakdown Gray ended up taking her home halfway through the movie so she could sleep it off.

Natsu was the next one to leave, Lucy kept trying all of the different drinks to make sure they were perfect and she ended up passing out before the movie started. She ended up taking a nap on Natsu's lap for a while but as soon as she woke up she started climbing all over him and purring. Gajeel really didn't know what the fuck that was about, he was doing his best to ignore it. Even though it was funny seeing Natsu embarrassed like that, he wasn't about to let anything happened that involved him seeing any part of Natsu he didn't want to see, so he offered to take them home. Apparently the whole time he was gone Erza had been shoving drinks down Levy's throat because when he came back she was a giggling mess, Erza was the exact opposite though, the more drunk she got the more hostile she seemed to be and Jellal didn't seem to be phased by it. He remembered a story from Jet and Droy that Erza was a crazy drunk, and had beat them up one time. He thought it was a bullshit excuse to just not show up tonight but Gajeel had a feeling he was going to find out the hard way and was glad Jellal was there to take Erza away the minute she decided to get crazy. Levy was drunk to the point that she decided to throw all modesty out the window, she was straddling his lap and cuddled up to him the way she did when they were usually alone. She either forgot that they still have company or she just didn't care, either way he would have thought she was asleep if it wasn't for all the giggling she was doing.

At this point Gajeel was the only one still trying to watch the movie, but if you asked him he couldn't tell you what it was about. Erza was pouting with her head on Jellal's lap complaining about them not being cute enough. Gajeel wasn't one for gossip, but he knew Erza and her boyfriend had a long distance relationship and no matter how much talking they did it was hard to just suddenly be intimate with someone. Sex was one thing, it happened behind closed doors and most of the time people parted ways afterward. It took him a long time to understand what true intimacy was, and it was a lot better than just meaninglessly rolling around with a random person. It was really hard to pay attention to the movie between Erza's whining and the fact Levy kept poking him in the ribs and stealing kisses. He didn't think anyone could get this hammered off of root beer and ice cream, but Levy had about three that he knew of and it hit her like a train. "Gajeel!? Why are you so muscly? You're all strong and stuff but you eat like a pig!"

"Oi, shrimp I know you ain't talking, you ate just as much as I did." He didn't know how someone as tiny as levy managed to put away the better part of a pizza. He was glad she wasn't the type of girl to nibble on a salad and pretend like she didn't like food. But she matched him slice for slice and he overdid it just to prove a point. That pizza was supposed to last them the whole weekend but it looked like they would either be eating out or ordering in tomorrow since all that was left was a grease stain and a memory of delicious cheese. It was nice to be spending the weekend at her house for a change. It was quiet, no annoying cat running around all hours of the night. No annoying brother not knocking, no annoying mom to try to pry into his relationship. He was ignoring the fact that they still had guests, to him it was just him and Levy, just how he liked it. Her parents were even gone for the weekend thanks to him, he passed along the reservations to some swanky hotel to kin. The envelope magically appeared on his bed one night when he got off of work and knew he wouldn't hear the end of it if he rejected them. So he passed them along to someone who actually needed it. Kin would be heading back to base soon, and Lana was at the point in her pregnancy where she didn't feel the greatest, so the gift would be better used by them.

Kin was a little suspicious at first wondering why Gajeel wanted to get rid of them for a few days, but when Gajeel asked him if he preferred him take his daughter away on a romantic weekend, kin stopped complaining. He made sure it was okay with levy first before giving them away, just cause he hated the thought of some overpriced hotel full of fake romance didn't mean she did. But she seemed just as bored of the idea as he did. Shit like couple massages and sitting in a hot tub a million people have probably fucked in just didn't sound like something either one of them would be into. Especially when they could do the same shit at home and massaging each other was a lot more intimate than having a stranger feel you up. He had been doing his best to give Levy all the back and shoulder rubs she wanted all week, he knew how uncomfortable she was and it was the least he could do to make her feel better.

Gajeel really needed to take Levy to bed and soon, if this was anything like last time he had all of five minutes before she turned into a pervert. And he was sure that would be traumatizing to at least one of their guests. "Hey, you think you can handle her like that? I need to take this one to bed and she's not going to stay there without a fight." Even though Jellal said he was fine, Gajeel wasn't going to make any promises about coming to help him if he heard any screams. He didn't want to walk in on anything as a misunderstanding. So he just took Levy to bed and decided he would clean up in the morning, it would be hard to do anything with her clinging to him like a monkey. Now it was just a matter of getting her off.

* * *

I had to split this chapter in two. I mentioned the last time Levy was drunk and the next chapter is all about that. So hopefully I can get it done soon.


	36. Chapter 36

Welcome to my Jerza chapter haha

* * *

It wasn't that rare for Erza to be out of her comfort zone, she hid her feelings well, but she was still human. Sometimes always being the third wheel got to her, and she couldn't help but cause a little mischief now and again. She was happy for her friends, it was nice that they found love, but when their group outings turned into a scene from the notebook she couldn't help but get a little annoyed. She knew it wasn't their intention to make her feel left out, but happened more often than she would like to admit herself. She was blind sided by it, the people she had known forever were suddenly just pairing up leaving her to sit on the sidelines. It wasn't that she didn't have her own admirers, she had plenty, but she had to force herself to try to see them as anything but friends and that wasn't worth losing a friendship over. Erza wasn't the type of person who settled or played pretend just to spare someone's feelings, she wanted something that was real, she was waiting for a spark. It wasn't until Levy's sweet sixteen that she met him, well met him again.

It was like seeing a ghost, it was like all the air was sucked out of her lungs and she finally had to remind herself to breathe once she started to feel light headed and realized someone was speaking to her. She didn't hear a word Lucy said, but she did manage to excuse herself long enough to confirm to herself what she already knew. It was like her feet were moving by themselves but she managed to wait long enough for Jellal to unwrap his arms from around levy before she threw herself into his arms. It wasn't until after they were both on the ground did she realize she might need an explanation for her actions but right now she was glad to be near him again. The dull pain from the impact was the only thing that let her know this wasn't a dream.

This really was Jellal, her Jellal. The one who told her he liked her hair as a child when everyone else made fun of it. The one who gave her a pair of strawberry earrings as a gift on her seventh birthday. The one she liked to talk to when her parents were fighting. The one who was kind to her even though he was at the age where most boys thought girls were gross, and pulling hair was a sign of affection. The one who she never had a chance to say goodbye to.

She remembered it being right after her ninth birthday that her mother picked her up from school in the middle of the day. All of Erza's things were in the backseat of the car and her mother was holding back tears and doing her best to hide a very obvious black eye. She didn't remember how many days they were on the road, but there were countless stacks of pancakes and sweet waitresses giving her an extra cupcake or two because they thought their hair was pretty. Her mother woke her up in the middle of the night on day and told her that this was their new home. She had to share a room with her mom for a while because they didn't have much money. And she would always pretend to be asleep when her mother cried. It was hard starting a new school, and fitting in with new friends. But she tried her hardest because she wanted to be strong like her mother.

Erza was thirteen the next time she saw her father, she didn't know if it took him over four years to find her, or four years to care. But she remembered being called into the office at school and him sitting there like nothing ever happens. Erza still loved her father, but she had his temper. All she remembered about that day was her father calling her mother a whore and her breaking his nose. She didn't remember what she said, but she threatened to kill him if he came anywhere near her mother. If it wasn't for Gildarts she was sure the assault charges would have stuck. But he had a soft spot for Erza and her mother so he helped them file a restraining order instead.

Erza wasn't great with words, and she was a very impulsive person so it wasn't until after she threw herself into his arms did she realize there was a possibility that he didn't recognize her. She was relieved when he whispered a "Hello again Erza." and hugged her back. She never expected their reconnecting to turn into romance, but when it did she realized why it never worked out with anyone else. They had been together for years, but she could easily count the days that they had actually spent together, but now that Jellal was here, she had no idea how to act around him.

Erza tried to watch her friends to get an idea of how a girlfriend should act, she usually just jumped Jellal the second she got the chance. But lately he had been voicing her desire to actually take her on a date, and maybe hang out with her friends. Tonight was actually a nice change of pace, but nothing her friends did seemed to fit her personality. She wasn't as passionate as Juvia, she wasn't quick to share her emotions so freely and she wasn't sure how Jellal would feel about a declaration of love that often. They said their "I love you's" in private, and they both seemed to like it that way so she was going to pass on Juvia's approach at love. She wasn't exactly as flirty as Lucy was, even though Erza was very comfortable with her body, and had already been intimate with Jellal, she was sure he wouldn't want to be hung all over in a way that was meant to be done behind closed doors. Lucy wasn't like that all the time, it usually took a couple of drinks to make her act like that, but she was going to be sure to ask Lucy about the purring thing.

Erza didn't think she was they cute type like Levy, Levy was small enough to climb into Gajeel's lap without blocking his view of the TV, and the fact he wasn't bothered by it meant that they probably did things like that often. Erza was almost as tall as Jellal, so her doing something like that would probably just be annoying so she settled for laying her head on her boyfriends lap. Erza noticed that Gajeel and Levy were always teasing each other, but they only pretended to be mad about it. When they were making dinner together they kept throwing jabs at each other, but none of their insults were actually insulting. Gajeel constantly made fun of her height, and held things out of her reach just to annoy her. Levy used to be really sensitive about her size, but it didn't seem to bother her too much when Gajeel was the one poking fun at her. Sure she still puffed out her cheeks in annoyance and called Gajeel stupid, but one comment about Gajeel's lack of eyebrows seemed to put him right in his place. At one point Levy climbed Gajeel like a tree to get what she wanted and it was pretty amusing to see.

But Erza didn't think Jellal would appreciate being insulted randomly, she knew she was bad at flirting, and worse at small talk, so when Gajeel and Levy finally went up to bed the awkward silence in the air was almost suffocating. Erza wasn't paying attention to whatever movie was on in the first place so she would be completely lost if she started watching it now, she didn't ruin the movie for Jellal though, so she was just going to lay here and mope until it was over. She started relax when she felt Jellal start to run his fingers through her hair, it was something he only did in private. Some of her friends did this from time to time, but it was so much better when it came from him though.

* * *

It was the summer before Levy's fifteenth birthday when they finally met in person for the first time, and in those few months Jellal learned what it was like to genuinely love another person. He had always cared for Levy, she was the only cousin he knew of, and it was hard to miss someone when they would call you out of the blue and request that you read them a bedtime story even though it was still four in the afternoon in your time. Over the years he had collected the countless letters and birthday cards she sent him whenever she got the chance and it always amazed him how her hand writing would improve from one year to the next. It was one thing getting to know her through phone calls, presents and the occasional book she would send him, but actually living with Levy was a whole different ball game. She was still adorable, she had always been, she still talked a lot when she was nervous and she could ramble on about a book she liked for hours on end. But over the phone he would have noticed that she played with her hair when she was nervous, or that she could probably out eat a grown man twice her size. He liked spending time with Levy, even though he had a hard time telling her no, he didn't mind doing new things he never dreamed of trying. Because of Levy he could give a mean manicure and he was able to increase his attention span after spending a whole summer in museums and Libraries because he refused to let her go anywhere alone. Levy always would tiptoe around his questions about her and boys, she thought she was being clever, but Jellal just decided to drop the subject because she seemed uncomfortable, not because she out smarted him.

And she was so smart, and sweet, Levy loved to talk about her friends. It didn't surprise him that she was surrounded by people and she was loved, Levy was the type of person who could make anyone her friend. He was sure that even the devil himself would smile in her presence and probably paint her toenails too if she asked. She always talked about these two boys she spent all her time with, and finally admitted that they were both in love with her, she only saw them as friends but Jellal could read between the lines and tell that she longed for something more, just not with them. She talked about a girl named Lucy who she hadn't known very long but she liked her a lot. The list went on and on and Levy only ever had nice things to say about people even when they had their quirks, like a girl named Juvia who Levy described as being passionate about her feelings which Jellal later learned was a hell of an understatement. One girl peeked his interest the most though, she had a very familiar name, and a shade of hair he would never forget. But he kept his suspicions on the back burner until the time was right.

Jellal didn't have much family, so Levy was very close to his heart. It was just him and his dad for the longest time, and he was fine with that. He didn't remember much about his mom, and when she died her side of the family never bothered to reach out to him, so he never saw a point in tying to build a relationship with them. Every holiday he would get a gift from his Aunt Lana, he knew his uncle was never home so even though his name was on it he probably never knew about the gift in the first place. Levy had been inviting him to all her birthday parties since she could talks and it wasn't until Levy's sweet sixteen did he accept the first invitation to one of her birthdays, his Aunt Lana was glad to have him there, she went out of her way to make her house "teenage boy friendly" and he appreciated the gesture but she ended up buying more video games than he could ever play in a month. He was nervous at Levy's party, he ended up staying up all night trying to figure out what to say. He didn't think she would remember him, it had been around ten years and they hadn't been in touch since, he thought about asking Levy to ask around for him, but he didn't want her to think the only reason he came to see her was to creep on her friend. Before he even had a chance to get up the nerve to talk to her, he was knocked on his back by a flash of red and they had been playing catch up ever since. The time difference between them wasn't that bad, they usually skyped each other right before Erza was going to bed and Jellal was getting off work, they spent most days just texting and talking about whatever crossed their minds. Jellal came to visit her as often as he could, but he was hoping to bring her to his own home soon.

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He wasn't sure what it was, but there was something about Erza that made other people forget that she was actually a woman. Sure they were aware of her actual gender, a blind man could see that she was actually a girl. And she was so beautiful that he was sure there were a fare share of men who shared his thoughts and feelings towards her. But beyond that shell, behind that tough exterior that everyone saw Erza was still a woman. One with thoughts and feelings, one with needs, one who liked to be complimented and given roses, one who was always hesitant to let him take control. People made jokes at her expense all the time, they didn't mean any harm in it but he knew it bothered her. When her friends found out they were dating some of them asked Jellal if he was the girlfriend in the relationship, he wondered why it was so hard to believe that Erza was capable on intimate things. They probably wouldn't believe that Erza turned the color of her hair when he stole her first kiss. Or that she covered herself with her arms almost every time he took her clothes off. They would probably believe that she slapped him for being a little too rough during their first time together, and then spent half the night apologizing for it.

Jellal wasn't stupid, he knew when his girlfriend was drunk, he knew when she was angry, or sad or any of the other emotions she sometimes liked to pretend like she didn't have. Erza was usually a pretty angry drunk, she would boss people around and act a little insane and anyone close to her would usually end up paying for her consumption of alcohol, himself included. The fact she spent half the night moping and was pretending to be napping on his lap was a pretty obvious sign that something was bothering her. He had a feeling it had something to do with the fact they spent all day with three other couples, he didn't mind the extra company too much, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't counting down the seconds until they left. He ran his fingers through her hair, if Erza was actually asleep the action would have made her stir, but because she was faking it she barely moved when he did it.

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Erza never had to question if Jellal missed her or her not, whenever she even thought about feeling self conscious his lips would find hers with hungry kisses and she would have to hold on to him for dear life to stop the room from spinning. She wasn't sure Gajeel and Levy made it all the way up stairs before he was in top of her, Jellal had such am easy going personality it was hard to tell what was on his mind, but she really wasn't expecting this. She knew there was going to be proof in the morning of the hot kisses he was leaving on her neck, and he was already making quick work of the buttons of her shirt. She wanted to scold him for doing something like this here, but his hand was already between her legs and she didn't trust her voice enough to actually get the words out. When they got together it was always like this, they would spend a day catching up and just being together, and by the second at least one of them would be pulling each others clothes off in a pace that would impress even Gray. Their clothes were the only thing stopping them from finally being together, the friction of his jeans rubbing against her felt amazing but it was a bad substitute to actually feeling his body against hers.

She always found herself surprised when he lifted her so easily, Erza was sure she almost weighed as much as him but he picked her up like she was nothing and carried her around like she didn't weigh anything at all. She was pretty impressed with how he was able to carry her up the stairs without missing a beat, one of them would have to go back later and pick up the trail of clothes they were leaving all over the place but right now all she could think about is removing the rest of them from his body. Erza almost rolled her eyes when she heard and felt a rip, she lost more underwear this way but rather than complaining about the fact he did this almost every time she would make him take her shopping for new ones. They hadn't quite made it to his bedroom yet when she felt him slip himself inside of her, definitely a feeling she missed. She almost bit through her lip trying to stop herself from saying his name, but her nails on his back made up for what she couldn't say. For the sake of the other couple in the house she was trying her best to be quiet, but if Jellal kept things going like they were right now she knew no one in the house would be sleeping tonight.

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I'm way better at writing Gajevy 3 but I tried lol. The jerza section was supposed to be small, but that didn't really happen... So the next chapter will be what was supposed to be here, and I promise its all Gajevy goodness. -Chesxca


	37. Chapter 37

Gajeel can't sleep so he's pretty much having flash backs in this chapter. Thanks for reading!

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Great, how the fuck was he supposed to sleep through that? Gajeel pulled a pillow over his head trying to drown out the other couples private moment, but the only thing the pillow did was make it harder to breathe. He wasn't a stranger to losing sleep because of other peoples bedroom behavior, but most of the time he was too drunk to care, or he would just move himself out of earshot of someone else's private moment. It was absolute hell when he decided to move into the basement, he couldn't take another minute of sharing a room with Rogue. If he knew his new room was going to give him perfect surround sound of his parents bedroom activities through the air vents he probably would have shared a room with Rogue forever. He thought he was fine once he had that problem figured out, but a whole new one emerged when his brother hit puberty and decided to get more acquainted with himself. Now the basement was soundproof, nothing got in and nothing got out and he liked it that way. He never had to worry about Levy being too loud when his family was home, and he didn't even have to think about the terrors that went on in his families bedrooms ever again.

Levy warned him that Erza and Jellal usually went at the whole time he was in town, but she usually just turned up the TV to give them some privacy, or stayed with Lucy for a while. Gajeel didn't think anything would drown out the sound of whatever was going on across the hall, but he could feel his cheeks warm up when things started getting a little more graphic. He never thought that Erza to be that loud in the sack, but Erza having sex in general wasn't a thought that crossed his mind before tonight. Sure she was pretty, but he's never had an urge of being the submissive one in the relationship and he was a little terrified of any girl that could kick his ass. That's why Levy was so perfect for him, he was sure she could kick his ass if she wanted to, but it wasn't likely that she actually would. They play fought all the time, and he was usually worried about squishing her more than anything and she used that as an advantage. He would get tired of her crawling around and tickling him like it wasn't cheating and pin her down just to make her behave.

Gajeel was trying to think of anything that could distract him while those two were still busy, he was hoping they would ware themselves out soon. It would be just his luck for Jellal to have the fucking stamina of a god. Gajeel understood it, going through a dry spell could be rough, he was usually a whinny little bitch when Levy was on her period, and the minute she gave him the green light they would be up for most of the night. Gajeel got pent up after a week, he couldn't imagine what Jellal was going through after almost a year, the poor guy was probably spending a lot of quality time with himself. Sure he understood the situation, but it didn't make his lack of sleep any less unpleasant. Of course Levy was asleep through the whole thing, she could sleep through the end of the world and wake up well rested, maybe it had something to do with the amount of time she spent staying up all night reading. The girl slept when she could, and once she was out nothing could get her up. This was almost as bad as the last time something like this happened.

When Gajeel was a brat and first started drinking he was a hell of a lightweight, it took him years to build up a proper tolerance but he had a few years of puking his brains out and passing out. He was always trying to keep up with the older guys so he would end up drinking way too fast and ending up with his head in a toilet. Sometimes he would just pass out in a corner and die, he would always wake up half way through whatever party he was at and do it all over again. One time he was passed out on Laxus's floor mainly because he knew Laxus would never forgive him for puking in his bed. Gajeel knew that if he fell asleep in Laxus's it would make him fair game, he had woken up one too many times as the little spoon and Gajeel really didn't want a repeat of that. Gajeel wasn't sure what woke him up that night, but when he realized what was going on, it was too late to escape.

Either Laxus forgot Gajeel was there, thought he was asleep, or he just decided not to care for that night. Either way Gajeel had to suffer through hearing Laxus entertain some girl who really liked to stroke his ego, among other things. He could deal with the giggles and the whispers and even with the squeaking of the bed, what he couldn't handle was the fact he had to hear his best friends name said in a way he just shouldn't hear. He wanted to stab himself in the ears, but he really didn't want either of them to notice him while they were still in the middle of things. At least with the way Gajeel was rolled over he could easily hide behind his hair and pretend he was asleep. That was definitely one conversation he never wanted to have, Gajeel was more embarrassed about hearing his best friend announce his closeness than anything a random girl had to say. Gajeel was just praying there wouldn't be a second round because he had been tortured enough for one night. Of course the minute Laxus found out why Gajeel wouldn't look him in the face, the teasing started and Laxus asked him why he didn't tag in. Gajeel was sure he was never going to live that one down, but Laxus stopped bringing it up the minute he started dating Mira and he thankful for that.

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Gajeel was almost jealous at how peaceful Levy looked in her sleep, he knew it had a lot to do with the alcohol she was throwing back earlier but it was still pretty cute to see her drooling on her pillow like that. That was usually a sign that she was sleeping good and he was glad at least one of them would be sleeping tonight. The same thing happened the last time she was drunk too, she would start off all cute and giggly, she found everything funny and would end up asking the strangest questions before her buzz finally wore off. That's when pervy Levy came out, he remembered her saying some stuff to him that even made him blush and she ended up passing out before he even knew what to do. Gajeel remembered more about her homecoming night than she did, and he was just glad she didn't drink often because he didn't know if he had the energy to chase her around like that. Gajeel just remembered the night of her homecoming just becoming more hellish by the moment.

Gajeel was jealous, he was pretty pissed at himself about it too. It was a completely new sensation for him and he didn't even understand why he was in the first place. Levy was his girlfriend and he trusted her, and it was pretty obvious that he was the one she wanted to be with, so why was he moping like a little bitch because she was going to a high school dance with another guy. A guy she had shot down more times than she could count, a guy he told her to go with. Never in his life had Gajeel had an urge to go to any stupid high school while he was there himself, his mom bribed him into going to prom or he would have skipped that too. But when Levy mentioned that she really wanted to go to her senior homecoming, but didn't want to go alone and suffer through being a third wheel, Gajeel almost instantly swallowed his pride and told her to take one of her "boyfriends." It didn't bother him at first, it was a stupid school dance where she was going to hang out with her friends for a few hours, take a couple pictures and come home. But somewhere between seeing how beautiful she looked when she was trying on dresses and how excited she got when she talked about it Gajeel could feel his stomach drop just thinking about her spending the night with another man. He knew he was being stupid, but he was new to this relationship thing and he had to learn how to deal with the bad things just like the good ones.

It was kind of a bittersweet thing that he didn't get to see her off, he was at work when she sent him the text messages of her getting ready, he thought she looked adorable but at the same time his mind immediately went to the fact she would be on Droy's arm all night instead of his. Gajeel knew when she first mentioned it that he was way too old to go, even when he was still in high school there was a rule in place that kept anyone old enough to buy alcohol out of the school dances. It was a pretty smart rule, but it was still pretty easy to sneak it in. He knew Cana usually spent the whole week stashing a bunch in her locker so everyone was usually pretty drunk by the end of it and no one really knew how. Levy planned on going straight home after the dance and Gajeel was supposed to be meeting her when he got off work. It was still pretty early in their relationship so he was trying his best to behave himself, but just laying next to her sometimes just drove him insane to the point he needed a cold shower and a breather.

Of course Laxus was giving him shit about the whole thing, it was in his nature to be an ass hole, it was even worse that he had to suffer through work with Laxus teasing him at every corner. Him and Laxus usually worked opposite shifts, but of course Laxus agreed to pick up a shift with Gajeel just to give him hell. Gajeel didn't even notice the usual sexual harassment he had to deal with on a daily basis and he wasn't sure if it was because his mind was preoccupied, or if the perverted soccer moms just had their eye on Laxus for the night. Gajeel didn't care either way, it was almost like having a night off without him being called over every couple minutes because people didn't know what an on button was. His brother spent the better part of the night blowing up his phone and asking him for advice on girls, which Gajeel had to laugh about. Rogue actually had enough balls to ask a girl on a date, and was trying his best not to blow it. Gajeel gave him very brotherly advice for him to just be himself, and not to be a pervert. At one point Rogue sent him a picture of him and Levy dancing together, apparently Rogue thought her date was being a little too flirty and cut in. Gajeel was going to owe him for that one.

When Rogue called him at midnight he figured it was going to be something stupid, he knew his brother wouldn't call their parents and tell on himself unless he absolutely had to. Gajeel had to squat down behind a counter and hide to answer the phone and that of course meant he had to deal with the fact his face was all of six inches from Laxus's crotch. He knew he should have been working, but it could have been an emergency and Laxus was currently making him pay for it, this was the only place in the building where someone his height could hide without being noticed, but it came at a high price. Laxus being the great friend he was decided to keep making blow job comments under his breathe, and decided to pull on Gajeel's ponytail to piss him off. Gajeel would slap his hand away and give him his best death glare, but Laxus would just fake apologize and say it was a habit before snickering and telling Gajeel how stupid he was being. It was only after Gajeel hit Laxus in the balls did he finally behave himself, sure he was in the fetal position and probably wanted revenge, but he was finally quiet.

Gajeel rolled his eyes and wanted to scold Rogue when he was explaining the situation, apparently they missed their ride and was stuck at the school and needed a ride home. Gajeel wasn't off for another hour and he wasn't looking forward to leaving work early but he couldn't just leave his brother stranded in the middle of night while he was trying to take care of a drunk girl too. He knew if Rogue called their parents he would never hear the end of it and probably be grounded for something that wasn't even his fault, with Gajeel's luck he would be blamed for his bad behavior rubbing off on Rogue and he really didn't want to deal with that. Gajeel felt even more bad for his brother when he sent him a text message that he was trying to take care of Levy too, apparently she had a little too much to drink and Rogue wouldn't let Droy take her home because Gajeel was already on the way. He told Laxus he was leaving, and he gave him a thumbs up while he was still trying to remove himself from the floor, apparently Gajeel hit him a little too hard, but it was hard to feel bad for somebody who just had their dick in your face.

* * *

It was almost funny watching Rogue deal with two drunk girls, it was worse than actual babysitting. At least little kids had small legs and be caught easily, the same could be said for Levy but Rogue seemed super uncomfortable trying to make either girl sit down and behave themselves. Rogue seemed relieved when Levy ran off again just to jump in Gajeel's arms, apparently his brother had enough excitement for one night and Gajeel couldn't wait to tease him about it in the morning. For some reason they thought it would be a good idea to put two drunk girls in the back seat without supervision, Gajeel didn't really need the distraction while he was driving and Rogue needed a break from after the night he had. Levy was just a giggling mess, and Rogue's date who's name was Yukino kept tying to climb out the window so Gajeel had to put the damn child locks on. Gajeel liked to think he wasn't a very jealous person, but when he looked in the rear view mirror because both girls were suddenly quiet he was less than happy to see that Yukino climbed onto Levy's lap and was trying to kiss her. There was a half of second where Gajeel had a perverted thought, and there was another half of second when Gajeel thought the act was just innocent, but jealousy won that round and he pulled over and told Rogue to remove his girlfriend from his.

He knew was going to have a bigger challenge of sneaking a girl into his room than Gajeel ever did, their parents room was right down the hall. Gajeel suggested that he should just stick her in the guest room, so even if his parents found out there wouldn't be an annoying sex talk to go along with the one about responsibility. Before he left his brother on his own he had to make sure he knew if he did anything stupid he would kill him. "Hey brat, ya remember what I said about drunk girls?" Rogue rolled his eyes and there was a definite blush on his cheeks, but he should have known it was coming. Ever since his brother started getting older and going to parties Gajeel had a talk with him about personal responsibility.

"I know, I know... Drunk girls can't say yes. Don't be a fucking piece of shit pervert, or you'll cut my dick off and I'll have to sit down and piss like a woman." Gajeel had to laugh at Rogue's imitation of him, he knew his brother was probably sick of hearing it. But his mom shoved that down his throat before he even knew what to do with a woman. Gajeel hoped for Rogue's sake that Yukino would just go to sleep, he knew his brother was going to suffer from sleeping on the floor all night, but at least he could wake up knowing he did the right thing.

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Gajeel had his own situation to deal with, Levy was still laughing at everything when Gajeel was carrying her to his room, he ended up texting her mom to let her know she was okay. He thought about just laying her down and tucking her in, but her dress was covered in glitter, and he was sure he would never get all of it out of his hair or bed. "Hey Shrimp? Do you want to change into something a little less sparkly?" Gajeel had to hold a hell of a poker face when Levy told him that he was going to have to help her, if he didn't know she was giggling because she was drunk, he would think she was laughing at the situation she just put him in. Her dress was pretty easy to take off, it was just a zipper that went down the back and she helped him pull it over her head. He almost lost his shit when he realized she decided not to wear a bra today and had his perfect view of her breasts.

"Gajeel! You pervert don't stare!." She crossed her arms over her chest, but he couldn't tell if she was really mad or not because she was still talking throw giggles. He wanted to apologize, but she could have warned him that she was pretty much naked under her dress but she probably forgot in her drunken haze. "Well, since you're being so nice, I guess you can stare a little bit." Gajeel could feel his breathe get caught in his throat when she exposed herself to him a second time, this time wasn't an accident. Gajeel had to listen to his own advice, Levy was drunk and there was no way he was going to act on any of the terrible things he was thinking of doing to her at the moment. "Gajeel... I want you to touch me." Between Levy's words and the look on her face he was having a real hard time ignoring how tight his pants had suddenly become.

As much as he didn't want to turn her down, he pulled one of his t-shirts over her head and tucked her in he did his best to ignore her pouting, it was hard for him to ever say no to her when she gave him that pleading look with her eyes. Lily was already cuddled up to Levy on her pillow, and he was glad that his cat was there to remind him to behave himself. He was happy to have Levy all to himself and he was fine with just cuddling her and giving her all the kisses she wanted, but she was making this night a whole lot harder than it had to be. When he was just starting to fall asleep he could feel Levy climb on top of him, most of the time it was a completely innocent act, even though it was an intimate position they would usually just talk like that. But he could tell she had no interest in talking when she pulled her borrowed shirt off and kissed him again. "Levy you're drunk. If you still wanna do all of this stuff in the morning, we can talk about it. But right now you need to go to bed." It was hard enough dealing with all the pouting let alone the fact she had been taking her clothes off faster than Gray could all night. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry when his mostly naked girlfriend fell asleep on top of him, but he had the last laugh in the morning when he got to tell her about her new stripping habit over breakfast while she was trying to nurse a hangover.

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Gajeel pulled Levy a little closer to him, even if he was going to have a hard time sleeping, he was going to try. He honestly had a shitty time trying to sleep without Levy, and that was half the reason he was still suffering through Jellal and Erza's good time. He didn't want to wake up Levy just to take her to his house when she was already sleeping fine. Maybe he would just sleep in tomorrow and convince Levy that breakfast in bed on the weekend was a good thing.

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I know I don't usually update this quickly, but I had a little more spare time and decided to bust this chapter out in one day. Sorry for the mistakes, I didn't have much time to edit, and if I didn't post today it wouldn't have been up until next week. Thank you guys for sticking with me this whole time, and we still have plenty of chapters to go! -Love, Chesxca


	38. Chapter 38

If there was one thing in the world that Gajeel could actually say he hated, it had to be flying. There were a ton of other things that he either found annoying, or pissed him off, or he just disliked it for one reason or another. But none of them could even come close to touching the hatred he had every time he had to take to the skies. Ever since he was nine he had been shipped back and forward between his parents half of the summer, and every other holiday. He hated it at first, he didn't want anything to do with his father for years after he moved away and Gajeel never got to see him anymore. Gajeel was even more hurt when he found out his father remarried and had another child, he felt the same way when Gajeel found out his mother was pregnant with Rogue. Both of his parents had new partners and he couldn't help but feel like both of his parents were trying to replace him. If it was up to Gajeel back then, he would have never went through the trouble of seeing his father again. He was beyond pissed when he found out that his father went to court to get custody of him, his mother was less than happy about the decision too, he would overhear her talk about what a dick his father was for trying to walk back into Gajeel's life after disappearing for five years. Gajeel was pretty pissed too, and begged his mother not to go. He accused her of just trying to get rid of him and refused to even hug her goodbye, the only one he bothered to say anything to was Rogue, who attached himself to Gajeel's leg and cried when he found out his big brother was leaving without him.

When he was finally on the plane he was stuck next to some old lady who talked too much, she kept asking him why he was crying and bought him candy even though he ignored her most of the time, but she was still nice enough to hold back his hair and rub his back when he started puking on the plane. By the end of the flight he was fast asleep with his head on her lap, and he wanted to just run away and live with her instead of being fought over by two people who he didn't think loved him. It was strange seeing his father for the first time in so many years, one part of him wanted to run to him, another part of him wanted to cry, but the more stubborn and dominant part of him made him clam up when his father pulled him into a hug for the first time in so long he didn't even remember. The first two days were pretty quiet since Gajeel was ignoring all of his fathers attempts to bond, and only gave him short one word answers when he tried to ask him about anything. He spent most of the time in his room that was almost identical to the one he had back home, and Gajeel knew his mother probably had something to do with that. On the third day Gajeel finally met his step-mother, a woman named Grandeeney, he seemed pretty nice, but he was skeptical since there were so many stories about what monsters stepmothers were. At least she was a better cook than his father was, and she was nice enough to bring his food to her room instead of making him come out if he didn't want to. It wasn't until a day later that Gajeel decided to investigate the crying he heard coming from another room, did he finally come face to face with the one person he was dreading meeting.

Gajeel wanted to hate her, his father had a new wife and a new baby so he didn't need him anymore. But he could feel his lip twitch into a smile when she looked up at him with those big teary eyes and put her arms up to try to reach him on the other side of the playpen. At least his father replaced him with someone so cute, Gajeel didn't normally like babies, Rogue pulled his hair and puked on him enough times for him to be done with that, but this baby, his little sister was just so lovable. Gajeel couldn't help but laugh and be a little bit grossed out when she rubbed her face against his chest and left a trail of drool between her lip and his shirt, he sat there with her on his lap listening to her baby talk with the occasional word that he could actually make out. He didn't know what to say to her, so he just randomly talked back and it just threw her into a fit of giggles that he found contagious. She ended up crying every time Gajeel tried to put her back in her playpen, so they ended up laying on the couch together. He didn't remember falling asleep, but he woke up sometime later covered in a blanket Wendy giggling in his fathers lap. "I see you met your sister kid, she must like you, since she won't let anybody else hold her." Gajeel couldn't help but laugh at his fathers jealousy over the next few days as Wendy cried for him constantly. Gajeel kind of liked having a sister, even if he didn't know anything about girls. He didn't have to share his stuff with her and every time Wendy cried for one thing or another in the store Gajeel got something too. Gajeel surprisingly had fun on his first trip to his fathers house, and he was glad he got to celebrate Wendy's first birthday with her.

Gajeel ended up puking his brains out on the flight home too, because he was an unaccompanied minor one of the flight attendants sat with him the whole time to make sure he was okay. The mixture of being sick and not seeing his mom for a whole week made him run through the airport just to hug her and even grabbed Rogue and climbed into bed with her and Skiadrum that night. The going back and forward between his two families had gotten easier over time, but for some reason the flying never did. Even as an adult the whole experience was a pain in the ass, his father easily spent over a thousand dollars a year on Gajeel's airfare, but Gajeel was the one stuck planning his flights and finding his tickets. It was always Gajeel's luck that the ticket prices would drop magically after he booked his flight, his dad never seemed to care, but Gajeel was always a little pissed that he spent more money than he needed to. His packing skills have gotten great over the years, he always waited until the last minute, and somehow still fit everything he needed in his bags an hour before his flight. One time he overslept and was in such a hurry that he completely forgot to pack any underwear. He found out the hard way and had to bribe Wendy with twenty bucks to go get him some while he was stranded in the shower. Gajeel was hoping his air sickness wouldn't be too bad this time, the last he wanted to do was puke on his girlfriend.

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Levy could feel herself pouting, usually when she was already this grumpy early in the morning she knew it was going to be a bad day, but she really couldn't blame anyone but herself. She was the one who wanted to take a seven a.m. Flight even though Gajeel suggested that they take one around noon. But levy used her puppy dog eyes and about a dozen very convincing smooches to get him to agree to an earlier one. She was only going to be spending four days with the other side of Gajeel's family and she didn't want to waste the first one stuck in a busy airport. Her intentions for the earlier flight were good, she even packed a week ahead of time just so she wouldn't have to worry about anything when the time came. But, in true Levy fashion she was less than happy when Gajeel tried to give her a 3 A.M. wake up call. She vaguely remembered Gajeel trying to gently shake and talk levy out of the bed, telling her that they would miss their flight if she didn't get up. But she was sure she made a couple threats about what she was going to do to him if he didn't leave her alone. She remembered growling and burying her face more into a pillow when Gajeel switched the light on and stole the blanket from her. And she was even more grumpy when every pillow in the bed seemed to disappear. At one point Gajeel had to pry poor lily out of her grasp because she was using the cats body to shield her eyes.

"Last warning shrimp, get up or I'm gonna get you up." Levy ignored his final warning and raised her hand to give him a less than loving message in the form of one of her fingers being the only thing she had enough energy to raise, she couldn't help but laugh at Gajeel telling her that they didn't have enough time for that. She would occasionally flip him off when he was bothering her while she was reading, and Gajeel's usually went from shocked, to amused, to perverted in about five seconds, but the slap on her butt let her know he was already at the perverted part. It was Gajeel's fault that neither one of them got any sleep last night, knowing they had to wake up way before the sun came up didn't stop him from being romantic. She was nervous enough about meeting the other side of Gajeel's family, but now she was more worried about them not being able to keep their hands off of each other for a few days. She couldn't completely blame Gajeel when it came to their love life, she was always stealing kisses and finding different ways to tempt him knowing that he was going to act on things the moment he got her all to himself. Levy would honestly feel a lot more guilty about her part of keeping them up all night if it wasn't for the fact that Gajeel was trying to pry her from the sweet comfort of his mattress. She tried to roll away from him and use her arm to cover her eyes, she jut needed five more minutes and she was going to be fine, she just needed Gajeel to leave her alone for a little while."Oh yeah Lev, that's how it's gonna be."

* * *

Gajeel felt like shit, he only got around three hours asleep before his alarm started screaming in his ear and he had to wake up to pack for their trip. It was always a pain in the ass trying to wake Levy up even if she slept twenty hours, waking her up on three hours of sleep was close to impossible, he had already stripped off every blanket, pillow, sheet, shirt and cat that was on the bed hoping it would make her stir. But she just kept begging for five more minutes, threatening him, and at one point she gave him the finger and told him to leave her alone. He would have normally laughed at her bratty behavior if they didn't have to catch such an early flight, but he had to use a trick he learned from Skiadrum to finally get her up, and she was less than happy when he flipped the mattress with her still on it. At least he was nice enough to soften her landing, Skiadrum used to just let him hit the floor and laugh as he went to go do the same thing to Rogue. Gajeel wasn't usually the most punctual person, but missing flights was expensive and he learned the hard way a few years ago that his old man wouldn't cover a time change because Gajeel was being lazy or acting like an idiot.

He was pretty surprised when his old man offered to pay for his and Levy's ticket to come visit them for a few days, and he wasn't about to turn it down. He knew his dad was only doing it to be nosy, since Gajeel really wouldn't tell him much about Levy anytime his old man asked. He knew his mom was telling him all kinds of shit, but Gajeel was a private person and if his dad wanted to know about his girlfriend he was going to have to meet her himself. One day his dad was being annoying and prying and Gajeel told him to bring his ass here and introduce himself if he wanted to know about her so bad, and he turned around and offered to fly them out whenever they wanted. Gajeel stalled on it for a while because he was trying to find the perfect time to tell Levy, she was always busy because she had to work, there was always some big test she was studying for or some project that had her pulling out her hair and spending long hours in the library. Gajeel kept hinting around and asking her when she would be free for a few days and it took almost two months before he had the perfect window to ask. Even though Levy was eighteen, he wanted to clear it with her parents first before he up and took her on a trip this long and far from home for the first time.

Gajeel decided to talk to Kin first since he was the harder parent, even though he accepted their relationship as a father he still questioned Gajeel's intentions and gave him shit from time to time. Gajeel would pretty surprised if Kin ever gave him a break. When he talked to him about the trip Kin gave him the usual threats about cutting off a very sensitive part of Gajeel's anatomy if Levy somehow came back tattooed, pregnant and or married. It was pretty surprising that Kin was the easy one to deal with this time, he thought it was a great idea, and ended up making plans of his own to fly Lana out so they could spend the holiday together. Gajeel thought he had everything worked out just fine until he went to talk to Lana about it while Levy was still at work. Lana was usually a very carefree person, she was always very supportive of Levy in general and accepted their relationship with open arms, so it was a little weird that she was giving him the cold shoulder. Levy warned him that her mom had been a little more touchy now that she was this far into her pregnancy, something about mood swings and her crying all the time, but Gajeel was sure he could handle it alone. After Gajeel explained the whole trip to Lana he thought she was would be bursting with excitement, she usually freaked out and got super happy whenever Gajeel told her about whatever date he planned for him and Levy next. But, she just kind of stared at him. "I guess that's fine, it sounds really fun and I couldn't really stop you if I wanted to anyway."

Gajeel could see what Levy meant about her mom being touchy, and Levy mentioned her mom had been crying a lot lately, but every time Levy tried to talk to her, her mom just shut her out. He was tempted to just leave things alone, but he loved Levy and Lana too much to just let her walk around upset about something without trying to make things better. Just like whenever Levy was upset, he pulled Lana into a hug. "Hey mom, you know if it makes you feel better you can talk to me. Or punch me in the face, that's kinda the vibe I'm getting so you can have a free one." He was glad that he was able to make her laugh, but he was a little bit nervous when she asked him to sit down. Gajeel had been in this position a million times before, it didn't matter if it wasn't his mother who was about to scold him, Gajeel knew somewhere down the line that he fucked up and was about to get his ass chewed out or kicked.

"Gajeel... Can I ask you something, and you be perfectly honest with me?" Gajeel nodded, but he had a feeling he already knew what this question was going to be, and he was sure Lana already knew the answer to it. "How long have you and my daughter been having sex?" Gajeel had a lump in his throat, but thankfully Lana didn't look furious, but he was also a bit worried that this was just the calm before the storm. Even though Lana was a doctor she seemed just as uncomfortable with the question as he was, and he wasn't sure why she was asking him this question instead of asking Levy. Gajeel honestly thought about making a run for it, he was really in the mood for being stabbed. But him running would just give her the answer and let her know Gajeel was the sort of pansy that didn't deserve her daughter. He knew lying wasn't an option, and Gajeel wasn't at all ashamed of it. Even though he was literally squirming in his seat he answered her question and was ready for whatever consequences came with it. "I thought so... I'm not mad at you guys or anything, I knew it would happen eventually. I'm just a little hurt that Levy didn't tell me. She's always told me everything... So I guess I was a little hurt that she never told me about it."

Gajeel could understand why she was upset about it, but at the same time he knew why Levy did run and tell her mom about it. "She's probably just not ready to talk to you about it yet... I don't know, I would rather jump off a bridge than talk to my mom about that. But you guys are a lot closer than we are, maybe she's just waiting for the right time to say something. Or maybe she's scared about how you're gonna react. I know I just shit my pants a little. I bet you didn't run straight to your parents and tell them about that... Just let her come to you, she's probably gonna freak out if you say something first." They both knew how shy Levy could be, and if her mom asked her something like that, she would probably shut down and be scared to look at Gajeel in the same room as her mother, so it was better to let her come around on her own.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I told my parents I was pregnant before I told them I was doing anything like that. They were even less happy when they found out I was already six months when I finally told them." Lana sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, Gajeel still thought it was crazy how much she and Levy looked alike. Even the expressions they made were pretty similar, side by side they looked more like sisters instead of mother and daughter. "I guess I have pregnancy brain and its making me crazy. I've been a mother longer than I've been a doctor and I'm still trying to figure this parent thing out." Gajeel couldn't imagine being a parent at this age, and when Lana was the same age as him she was married and had a five year old. Gajeel loved Levy, but he hoped that it was way down the line that they even started talking about kids or anything like that, but if anything happened he would still be happy because it would be with her. Like Lana was reading his mind she spoke up again, "I'm sure my husband's already threatened you, but I would rather not have a child and grandchild around the same age so just be careful." She kissed him on the forehead and Gajeel had honestly been avoiding her since that conversation happened, he loved Lana and all but he really didn't want to suffer through a part two of that. He decided that he wasn't going to tell Levy about it until after she talked to her mom, he didn't want to freak her out about it, or get pissed about it or anything, so Gajeel just decided to keep his mouth shut.

Gajeel really didn't want to ruin this trip for her, and if his dad thought for a second there was trouble in paradise he would probably meddle and make things way worse.


	39. Chapter 39

This chapter is all about Levy's daddy. The next chapter will be back to Gajeel and Levy but it was time to get to know a little bit more about Kin. Thanks as always for reading, and were about 11 chapters from the ending.

* * *

Kin really outdid himself this time, and he couldn't wait to see the look on his wife's face. Waking up at the crack of dawn was normal for him, being in the military for nearly twenty years would do that to you and he pretty much gave up on any hope of ever sleeping in again. It didn't matter how long his vacation was, or what ungodly hour he climbed into to bed, his eyes popped open before the sun was up and no matter what he did there was no way he was falling back to sleep. It was a side effect from being active duty for as long as he was, even though he's spent he past eight years sitting behind a desk, he still had a clear memory of the twelve years that he was active duty and there were times he didn't sleep for days. Sometimes he missed it, he missed it a lot. Spending all of his time in an office full of old men could be torture on it's best days, but at least it was safe.

He didn't plan on making a career out of the military when he was younger, he joined and was going to make the best of those four years to provide for his family. But he learned the hard way the babies were expensive, especially ones who needed special tutors and needed to go to the best schools because it was very obvious that his daughter was already a genius at the age of two. So he reenlisted to make sure his daughter could go to the best schools. Then he reenlisted so his wife's dreams of being a doctor could be a reality without her having to work full time while raising their daughter, without her having to worry about crippling student loans that would take decades for her to pay off. Just like that twelve years flew by and he reenlisted because this was all he's ever known, and starting over was scary. He wasn't sure if he knew how to be a father full time, or a husband full time. Or even being a civilian seemed far fetched. He was a soldier, he was good at being a soldier, and putting his life on the line was the least he could do for the women in his life.

And then he got hurt, and his life was turned upside down. He didn't lose a limb like some people, he didn't even lose his mind. But he was damaged now, lost most of his hearing on one side. But it was permanently on his file, they treated it like he was fragile now and he had a medal that was pretty much a thank you and a screw your at the same time . He got a pretty bad head injury they didn't think he would come back from, but he could still run ten miles easily like he was still twenty one and not in his thirties. That didn't matter though, he was a liability and they offered him a chance right there to get out and retire early. But he reenlisted even though he knew he was going to be stuck behind this desk. And then his daughter was a teenager who wanted to be around people her own age, so he didn't object to her going to a public high school. She only took a class here and there to stay enrolled, most of the time she was doing her college courses in he library because she was smarter than the teachers and challenging herself was getting harder and harder the older she got.

Then there was his wife, who went from casting broken bones to sticking her hand into somebody's chest without flinching on a daily basis. Kin was happy to say that greatness came from the last name Mcgarden, so he didn't have a problem with sitting behind this boring desk as long as he had too. As long as his girls were good, it was worth every second of lectures and meetings and emails he didn't care about. And trying to squeeze in a couple chapters of whatever book levy was reading so he would have something to text her about.

The only good thing about his safe, but very boring desk job was the fact he had most weekends off. If he wasn't so far from home he would gladly leave work Friday evening and drive just to see his girls for a day or so before having to drive right back Sunday. Every once in a while he would surprise them with gifts kisses and dinner on the table when they got home, or breakfast when they woke up. It all depended on how bad traffic was and if broke some traffic laws on the way here. Holidays were a little easier, they were always hit and miss. If he had to work one, he would get the other off. But he always managed to get his higher ups to let him work through thanksgiving so he could have Christmas off. The other holidays were less important to him, but he refused to miss another Christmas Eve of playing Santa and scarfing the store bought cookies levy left him when he was wrapping all night. When levy was ten he convinced her that Santa would be a lot happier with beer instead of milk and he laughed when she refused at first because she didn't want Santa to be a drunk driver.

Even though she was an adult now he couldn't wait to see her eyes light up when she finds out Santa brought her the rare books she had been looking for. Along with the silk headbands she loved so much. He wasn't sure what possessed her to cut off all of her hair a few years ago, but she was always happy to receive a new one to pull her hair out of her face while she was reading or for some reason they wore out faster than he could buy them. Lana never asked him for anything, except that he come home. She had a jewelry box full of trinkets and jewels he had bought from different countries over the years, but the only piece she wore regularly was her wedding ring. He caught on eventually and ended up buying her a pretty expensive stethoscope, and like levy and her headbands Lana strangely went through those like water too. So now she had one in every color, design and room of their house. So she didn't have to worry about losing them as much as she used to.

His vacations were a little easier to plan because he usually just split his days between levy and Lana's birthdays with a few left over so he could stay past New Years when his Christmas break was up. Still a lot of the time he ended up a day late and a dollar short, for some reason or another. Levy was always a lot more forgiving than her mother, she was just happy to see him at all. Sometimes he wished she would just be mad a little longer, instead of telling him she didn't really get her hopes up. That was bad enough, not to mention all the pictures he was missing from, and all the memories he missed. He still had a video of levy walking for the first time while he was overseas, and he remember a voicemail from levy who wasn't even one yet giggling and yelling "dada" into the phone because he was her first word. Kin never minded suffering for his family, but the fact the suffered with him often ate him alive.

Kin always played with the idea of buying a home closer to base, but it wouldn't be fair to expect Lana and levy to just uproot their lives and move closer to him, when there was always the possibility he could be transferred halfway across the world every time he signed on for another four years. The first couple years after he was labeled as damaged goods he lived on base with three room mates and it was just too cramped for him. He ended up finding an apartment not too far from the city and about a ten minute drive from base so it being right in the middle made it convenient to go back and forward without too much of a hassle and he had the privacy he wanted. His second bedroom was meant to be Levy's if she ever wanted to visit but he wasn't sure if she's ever stepped in twice since she started high school. It was a pretty pink color decorated with characters he was sure she had long forgot about. But he did his best to keep it clean so she would have the option to come out this way if she wanted to. Most of his uniforms were stored in her otherwise empty closet, and it was filled with bookcases of things she recommended to him over the years. His collection wasn't nearly as large as hers, but he would kick his feet up in his chair and pull out one of his favorite whenever he wanted to feel close to her.

Kin did that for about an hour this morning, he was up before six and he had no real important work to do because of the holiday so he decided it could wait until Monday to be finalized. He spent about three hours in the gym, he had gotten used to the loss of hearing on one side and owned a pair of headphones that he could adjust differently on that side. After a shower he curled up with a book that levy had just finished reading and drank some of the pumpkin tea she loved so much since it was in season. He was going to make sure to send a box or two home for her when he got the chance. He couldn't check into his hotel until one, he knew his wife wouldn't mind staying in his apartment during her visit. But it was nearly impossible to make a sad mostly empty two bedroom apartment romantic and she deserved better than that. He was a pretty clean person so it was more likely he would end up cleaning after her if she stayed here. Lana always had to be clean at work so at home it wasn't a rare sight to see seventeen bottles of water and a weeks worth of coffee mugs on the counter. Levy could be the same way when it came to her books. There would be a whole series stacked up in the coffee table surrounded by her cups of tea. He knew his girls always got together and cleaned every Sunday but when Saturday rolled around the house was in need of a little love.

Kin already packed his things days ago and most of them were already in the trunk of his car. He learned the hard way when he was younger that it was always better to be prepared, rather than throwing everything together at the last minute and then finding out the hard way that you didn't pack underwear. The only thing he had left to grab was his garment bag that was hanging by the door. It always felt a little weird wearing a regular suit for any reason, when in the military you had a dress uniform for just about every occasion and you were actually told what to wear in all invitations. He still owned a suit because sometimes he just needed to separate the man from the soldier. Kin found out pretty early on that everybody wants to talk to a person in uniform, but sometimes he just wanted to blend in with the crown, especially when he was on the rare opportunities he got to take his wife out. Kin wanted to surprise his wife tonight, so he made reservations at a pretty expensive restaurant inside the hotel. Telling her to pack something nice would have completely ruined the surprise, so he had to have Levy sneaking around to see if Lana currently had her eye on anything.

Shopping for his wife wasn't as hard as people made it seem, he knew her favorite color, and the prints that she liked. The fact that Lana was just as vertically challenged as Levy, long dresses were pretty much out of the question unless she had enough time to get it hemmed. And he had been yelled at a dozen times for buying her anything out of the teens section, he ended up buying her a dress for her birthday one year, and it just happened to be the same dress Levy bought for herself a week earlier and Lana didn't let him live it down. She teased him for a week asking him if he was going to buy her a school girl costume next, or if he had a kink she didn't know about. So now he was a little more careful when he went shopping for her, Lana was used to people thinking she was a teenager all the time. Everyone thought that Levy was her sister and not her daughter and he knew it got on her nerves. Kin always told her that she should take it as a compliment, but Lana wasn't a fan of the looks and judgement she received when she explained to people that she had her child at sixteen.

He found a dress earlier in the week he was sure fit the checklist, but he had to go to Levy for help. It usually wasn't a problem finding something in his wife's size, but the fact she was pregnant made things a little bit harder than they usually were. If he bought it and it was too bug, he knew there would be some argument about him thinking she was fat or something and Kin really wanted to avoid those tears. If he bought it and it was too small, there would be a similar reaction about her being big because she's pregnant and how nothing fit anymore. He ended up having the store hold it in three different sizes until yesterday, so Levy could tell him exactly which one he needed right now. Lana wasn't usually this sensitive when it came to clothes and sizes and her weight, but something about her being pregnant made her a little less stable and he didn't want to do anything to set her off.

Even though Levy was an adult now he could still remember the midnight trips for ice cream and whatever else his wife wanted while Lana was pregnant with her. Kin loved her so he didn't mind doing anything to make her stop crying, and he could never have the heart to be mad at her even if she was apologizing for her behavior every five minutes after biting his head off. Kin read all the baby books he could find at the time, so he knew her mood swings were just a side effect from the pregnancy hormones. He could deal with being a little more sensitive towards her as long as she needed him to be, she was the one who was growing a person and Kin always thought it was a beautiful thing. They always talked about having another baby, but the time never seemed right. Between his job keeping him away, and her job keeping her busy, they didn't think it would be fair to have to make Levy babysit all the time, and neither one of them seemed to like the idea of a nanny. They weren't even talking about, or planning to have another baby this far about, but it was happening and he was ecstatic. He always hated the fact he missed so much of Levy's life, and now that he was getting a second chance at being a father he planned on being more hands on, and hoped to find a way to make it up to Levy that he had missed so much over the years. It was wishful thinking, but he had to have hope.

* * *

The weight of not seeing his wife for over two months hit him all at once, he didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry or kiss her when she looked up at him with that teasing smirk she always gave him. If he had things his way, he would forget all about public decency and show her just how much he really missed everything about her. He always loved the way she looked when he saw her, but he loved her the most like this. She looked cute with her hair pulled in a bun on the top of her head wearing sweat pants a shirt she obviously borrowed from him since it was twice her size and she wanted to be comfortable for her drive here. "Well, aren't you handsome." Even though he had a fresh haircut and shave he could feel her hands rub against his stubble before pulling him into a kiss he knew they had both been waiting for. "Is all this for me?" He didn't comment on it, but he wasn't surprised to feel her swollen stomach between them when he finally pulled her into a hug. The last time he saw her she wasn't showing at all, but now that she was six months pregnant it was obvious that the roundness of her stomach wasn't from eating too much and that there was a person in there.

"Oh baby, just wait. You haven't seen anything yet."


	40. Chapter 40

I'm Alive!, its been a while, on this story at least. I took a super hiatus but I'm hoping to be more active from now on. I have a couple other stories I'm working on to, so I'm trying to update them in turns. My tumblr name is Chesxca-c and I usually mention when I'm updating on their if you're curious.

* * *

"So Shrimp, what do you think?" Levy didn't think the sound that just came out of her was even human, she was more excited now than she was when she found a new author she loved with a bunch of books she hadn't read yet and that was saying a whole lot. She lost count of how many kisses she had stolen from Gajeel already and she had no plans of slowing down any time, she knew he wasn't the biggest fan of being hung all over in public, but because of their height difference most of her kisses were landing along his chin and he didn't try to dodge any of her displays of affection. Levy knew she had been grinning like an idiot since their plane landed a little while ago, but now it was to the point that her cheeks were starting to hurt and she didn't know if she was going to laugh or cry. If anyone would have told her a year ago that she would be on vacation on the opposite side of the country with her boyfriend, she probably would have either laughed at them, or called them a stupid liar. Both things by them self were pretty hard to believe, but together it was almost like it was something out of a fantasy, it was like she was living someone else's life right now instead of hers, and she had no plans of trading back.

Levy pushed herself on her tiptoes to give herself a better view, she was usually too shy to let herself get this excited about something in front of a bunch of strangers, but with Gajeel behind her she felt a lot better about the fact she was pushed up against the glass and being a tourist. Levy usually tried to ignored her friends comments about her acting differently now that she was dating Gajeel, but she had to admit that she was a lot happier, and she felt more confident and cared a lot less what others thought of her. The old Levy would have let a comment like that keep her up all night, but she remembered brushing it off and her and Gajeel laughed about it later that night. She didn't care if she was changing or not, her friends didn't care when they all got all boyfriends and stopped spending time with her, so why should feel guilty now that she was spending all of her spare time with Gajeel. She tried not to let the whole thing bother her, she didn't know why her friends couldn't wait until after her vacation to bring something like that up, but she tried to push it to the back of her mind for now and enjoy the time she and Gajeel had alone together. "So what do you want to do first?"

Levy couldn't help but notice the difference in their reflections in the mirrors, she already knew when people saw the two of them together it was like night and day. Gajeel towered over her, and even though he wasn't complete draped in dark colors for once he still looked pretty intimidating compared to her who looked tiny and fragile next to him. She couldn't help but laugh, Levy looked like she was about to burst out in giggles at any second she was so happy, and Gajeel just looked like he wanted to lie down. Levy knew the cocktail of barely sleeping last night and being airsick from the plane was catching up with him. Even though Gajeel said he was feeling fine, Levy knew better but she wasn't going to ruin the mood by arguing with him about it. "My old man says he's running late, the dick probably forgot us. Wouldn't be the first time he left me up here an hour, but that gives us enough time to go shopping. I'll buy ya somethin if ya let me pick it." Levy didn't really trust the smirk on his face, but it couldn't hurt anything to look around.

"Stupid Gajeel, that's just strings." Usually boys avoided stores like this, Levy could remember both Gray and Natsu bribing her to go pick out something for their respective girlfriends around valentines day and them standing outside the store trying not to look suspicious. When she asked the guys about why they refused to step foot inside or even carry the bags with the stores name on it they said it was because they looked like perverts. Levy didn't get it at first until Natsu explained that if you're a guy and in that store its either because you're a pervert trying to feel on panties, you're shopping for someone, or you're shopping for yourself. Levy still thought it was stupid, but she got two new books out of it and all she had to do was buy her friends Valentines day presents. Gajeel didn't even flinch when he dragged her in the dimly lit store, some of the stuff looked like it belonged in Erza's closet and just thinking about wearing one of those all lacy things made her cheeks light up. She took another look at the at the thing Gajeel was holding up and she realized it was actually a swim suit and that kind of made it both better and worse. "If you were gonna buy me something trashy, why not buy me underwear, at least nobody will see that."

Of course Gajeel's air sickness stops acting up long enough for him to be a pervert, Levy didn't think the bikini was that bad, it just wasn't something she would normally pick out for herself. The extra straps and the cut out sections didn't really show off anything that was too important but she didn't know why that was the first thing he went to when he thought of her. "I think Cana's got you covered in the whole buying you underwear thing." He had a point there, Cana worked in a shop like this and she would bring Levy home all sorts of stuff at the end of the month when it was out of season and was practically free at that point. Levy had a drawer full of stuff that she wouldn't even think about wearing, but lately she gave a few things a second look to surprise Gajeel with on their trip. "Plus i don't see the point in buying you something like that just for it to get thrown on my floor for the rest of the night." Levy let out the breathe she was holding and sighed in defeat, she figured it was just a swim suit, wearing it wouldn't hurt anything and if she didn't like it she knew Gajeel wouldn't make her wear it in public. Levy decided if Gajeel was going to have his fun dressing her up, so would she. His face was priceless when she told him that if he expected her to wear that he was going to have to wear a speedo. "You gotta deal Lev, it'll totally be worth it." It wasn't the response she expecting from him, but at least she would feel a lot better if she wasn't the only one showing a little skin.

Levy didn't know much about Gajeel's dad, but the man who currently had her boyfriend in a headlock ruffling his hair was not what she expected. Levy naturally assumed Metalicana was going to be like eight feet tall and just look like an older version of Gajeel, but he was a whole head shorter than Gajeel and had short white blonde hair and Gray eyes. "Let me go old man, is this any way to greet your offspring?" Levy couldn't tell if Gajeel was actually annoyed or just pretending to be with his dad pulled him into a hug instead, he looked a little embarrassed but offered his father a pat on the back rather than pushing him away. "Alright lets get the hard part over with. Shrimp, this is my other old man Metalicana." Levy was really surprised that Gajeel and his father looked nothing alike, but she guesses she should have known that since Gajeel and Rogue were both a spitting image of their mother. Rogue didn't look a thing like his father either, but a lot of the things they did were alike. So Levy wondered if she was going to be dealing with two Gajeel's for a while, or if Metalicana's mannerisms were completely opposite of her boyfriends. "Pops, this is the love of my life Levy, so do your best not to run her off."

"Love of your life huh?" Metalicana almost choked on his words repeating Gajeel's introduction of her, she didn't know if that meant he was just surprised with Gajeel's confession or he just didn't like her. "Shit brat, really? Okay." Gajeel's father was looking at him like he still didn't believe him, and Levy could tell that Gajeel was just getting more annoyed by the minute. "Alright doll, how much is he paying you to pretend to be his girlfriend? Or are you just doing it for the free vacation, there's no way he snagged you." Levy could see Gajeel glaring daggers at the back of his dads head when he brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear, Levy was a little surprised by the sudden contact, but she figured he was just doing it to tease Gajeel even more. "Well, I guess since you're dating my terrible son, you can call me daddy." Levy didn't know if she was more surprised by his comment, the kiss on her hand, or the wink that followed. Levy knew practically nothing about Gajeel's father before this, but she really wasn't expecting him to be like this.

"Enough of that Geezer! And she ain't gonna be calling you daddy or any of that other pervert shit you're thinking right now." Gajeel finally had enough of his dads behavior and stepped in between her and his father. "Can't you be a normal old man and not hit on my girlfriend." Levy couldn't even say that Gajeel even acted like his dad, she knew he got his bad temper from his mom, but so far she hadn't seen anything that Gajeel and Metalicana really had in common besides the fact they both had piercings, and Gajeel still had about double the amount his father did. "Sorry Shrimp, I thought he would at least last a day before he started acting like a fucking pervert. Don't worry about him though he ain't gonna dig through your panties or peep in on you in the shower or nothing, he's just doing it to piss me off."

"He's right, I just love getting under this little fuckers skin. He gets mad so easily, so its hard to resist." Gajeel scowled when his father ruffling his hair again.

"Old man, will you knock that shit off, you're being embarrassing in front of my girlfriend."

"Do you hear yourself? When the hell did you start that pansy ass behavior? I'm sure you embarrass yourself more without my help."

"Why you gotta be such a dick?"

"Why do you have to be so damn sensitive? You get that shit from your mom? Speaking of her how is she? She still hot?"

"She's fucking married! You're fucking married! To different people!"

"Doesn't mean I can't look at your MILF of a mom?

"Don't use that fucking word, I'm gonna throw up."

"You and that weak ass stomach, I was an hour late on purpose so you wouldn't puke in the car."

"Father of the fucking year!"

"Son of the century!"

"Fuck you old man!"

"Eat a dick brat!"

"I ain't in to that shit."

"Could have fooled me, I just knew you were bringing that Laxus kid and strolling out of the closet. Imagine my surprise that you brought home a pretty girl."

"If you weren't driving I would punch you in the dick for saying some shit like that. Sorry Lev, me and him haven't seen each other in a while so we gotta get our hits in now. If we do this shit in front of my sister my step mom would have both of our heads."

"You ass hole you didn't warn her, she's probably ready to jump out of the car after that shit. Yeah apparently I have a thing for scary women, you've met Gia before right? Hotter than hell, but would probably stab me if she could get away with it."

"I can fucking relate old man, its like your goal in life to be as infuriating as humanly possible."

"Awh, I love you too son. So glad I didn't pull out."

Levy couldn't help but laugh, she didn't see it before but now it was pretty obvious. "You guys are so much alike." Both men turned around and gave her a strange look like she was crazy, but watching Gajeel and Metalicana push each others buttons this whole time was both surprising and amusing. Metalicana hid his mischievous side a lot better than Gajeel did, but they were still one in the same. As much as Gajeel liked to tease her and everyone around him it was going to be fun to see him get a taste of his own medicine. "So daddy Metalicana, do you have any embarrassing stories about Gajeel?"

"Don't call him that! Don't answer that."

"Oh Darling I thought you'd never ask!"

* * *

So I ran this through spell check but didn't really edit it because I won't have time to do it until like Sunday so please forgive me. Spell check kept correcting Metalicana to Metallica which is still awesome but not his name so sorry if I didn't catch them all. I didn't really know how to format an argument, so if you have any tips on that I would love to hear them. It's been like seven months since I worked on this story so it might take me another chapter to get back into the swing of things. Thank you as always for reading and being patient with me! -Love Chesxca!


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